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THE  REAL  KAISER 


THE  REAL  KAISER 

An  Illuminating'  Study 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1914 


COPTRIGHT,   19U 

By  ANDREW  MELROSE 


VAIL-BALLOU     COMPANV 
BINGHAMION  AND  MEW  YORK 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 

The  personality  of  the  Kaiser  is  so  many-sided  that 
his  true  psychology  is  very  difficult  to  discover  by  the 
ordinary  newspaper  reader,  who,  for  twenty  years, 
has  taken  at  face  value  every  one  of  his  numerous 
speeches  without  remembering  the  one  that  preceded 
it.  Since  the  war  broke  out,  extracts  from  these 
speeches  have  been  presented  to  the  public,  with  the 
effect  of  entirely  bewildering  the  large  class  who  have 
intelligence,  but  have  no  specialised  knowledge  of 
Germany  and  her  ruler.  To  them,  modem  Germany, 
with  her  dreams  of  world-domination,  as  it  is  now 
made  known,  is  an  entire  contradiction  of  all  their 
preconceived  views  of  the  peaceful  domestic  nature  of 
the  German  people,  and  the  Kaiser  is  a  dozen  different 
men  in  one  body.  Yet  the  careful  student  of  things 
and  persons  German  for  the  past  quarter  of  a  century 
finds  himself  in  no  amazement  about  the  war  and  its 
conduct  by  Germany,  and  to  him  the  Kaiser  as  the 
Peaee-bringer,  the  "shorter  catechist,"  and  the  war 
lord,  not  to  speak  of  the  painter  and  the  musician, 
show  one  strong  personality  and  purpose  underlying 
each  exaggerated  manifestation. 

The  author  of  the  following  pages  has  had  excep- 
tional opportunities  to  study  his  subject  at  close  quar- 
ters, and  he  presents  here  an  attempt  at  an  all-round 


Publishers^  Note 

view  of  the  Kaiser  which  shall  enable  an  ordinary- 
reader  at  least  to  understand  the  man  who  could  have 
declared  for  peace  and  ensured  it,  and  who  in  a  fate- 
ful hour  decreed  war  and  is  now  struggling  through 
seas  of  blood  towards  a  goal  that,  day  by  day,  is  re- 
ceding from  him. 

After  some  hesitation,  the  author  has  decided  to 
remain  anonymous.  This  is  not  because  he  has  any 
reason  to  be  ashamed  of  his  name,  or  wants  to  give 
the  impression  that  he  is  somebody  of  very  great  im- 
portance. His  reason  is  simply  that  his  intimate 
relations  with  people  in  Germany  would  make  it  in- 
convenient for  them  and  for  him  were  he  to  be  known 
as  the  author  of  this  pen-portrait  of  the  Real  Kaiser. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  Who  18  THE  Kaiser? 1 

II  The  Kaiser's   Inheritance 12 

III  The  Kaiser    as    Figurehead 24 

IV  The  Kaiser  as  Orator 35 

V  The  Kaiser  as   Business  Man 45 

VI  The  Kaiser  at  Home 59 

VII  The  Kaiser's  Lighter  Moments 71 

VIII  The  Vain  Kaiser 82 

IX  The  Kultue-Kaiseb 93 

X  What  Germans  think  of  the  Kaiser   .      .      .   103 

XI  What  the  Kaiser  thinks  of  the  Germans  .      .111 

'  XII  What  is  Germany? 121 

XIII  The  Kaiser  and  Woiild-Poutics 133 

XIV  The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat 143 

XV  The  Kaiser  and  Peace 156 

XVI  The  Kaiser  and  his  Heir 168 

XVII  The  Kaiser  and  Religion 180 

XVIII  The  Kaiseb  and  his  Creatures 188 

XIX  The  Kaiser  as   Sea  Lord 199 

XX  The  Kaiser  as  War  Lord 209 

XXI  The  Real   Kaiser 223 


THE  REAL  KAISER 


CHAPTER  I 

WHO  IS  THE  KAISER! 

'*Who  is  this  Kaiser?  I  can  find  no  name  for  him, 
unless  it  be  Legion." — Prince  Czartoriski  to  the  Galician 
Diet  in  1901. 

"Who  is  this  Kaiser?" 

I  heard  the  question  asked,  in  tones  of  sur- 
prise, by  a  pretty,  well-dressed  woman  in  an 
omnibus.  She  had  been  reading  in  an  evening 
paper  the  Kaiser's  order  to  his  army  to  an- 
nihilate "the  contemptible  British,"  and  her 
amazement  forced  the  question  from  her. 

From  her  male  companion  the  answer  came 
pat,  "Oh,  he  is  just  the  Emperor  of  Germany." 

Quite  wrong,  of  course,  but  quite  typical  of 
the  current  British  conception  of  the  most  no- 
torious of  living  human  beings. 

He  is  not  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  though 
ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  Britons  say 
quite  loosely  that  he  is. 

From  time  to  time  he  has  been  obtruded  upon 
their  notice,  each  time  in  a  different  capacity. 
They  have  altered  their  conception  of  him  a  hun- 
dred times.     Only  one  facet  of  his  many-sided 

1 


2  The  Real  Kaiser 

character  has  been  exposed  to  them  at  one  time. 
They  have  failed  to  understand  his  complexity 
of  character,  just  as  they  have  chosen  to  ignore 
the  complex  problems  of  the  young  Empire 
which  has  grown  into  so  amazing  a  power  under 
his  guidance. 

He  amused  them  when  he  came  to  the  throne. 
They  sensed  him  as  a  loquacious  young  man 
with  an  untiring  energy.  Then  he  was  pre- 
sented to  them  as  the  young  fool  who  summa- 
rily dismissed  his  greatest  statesman,  the  iron 
Chancellor,  Bismarck,  who  had  made  the  Ger- 
man Empire. 

Sir  John  TenniePs  cartoon  in  Punch,  *' Drop- 
ping the  Pilot,"  hit  the  British  imagination. 
They  saw  the  Kaiser  as  a  rash  youth,  who  would 
presently  repent  his  folly  most  bitterly.  They 
got  quite  sorry  for  the  Kaiser. 

That  was  followed  by  the  sort  of  patronising 
liking  that  good  Britons  conceive  for  interesting 
foreigners.  He  was  always  doing  and  saying 
things  that  amused  them.  He  called  Queen  Vic- 
toria ''Grandmamma,"  in  a  public  speech,  and 
they  rather  liked  that.  They  recalled  the  fact 
that  he  was  the  son  of  a  popular  British  prin- 
cess, and  half  an  Englishman. 

They  saw  him  and  admired  his  appearance. 


Who  is  the  Kaiser?  8 

Every  inch  a  king  was  this  young  German 
Kaiser.  The  atmosphere  of  sausage  and  saur- 
kraut  was  dissipated,  and  he  ceased  to  be  a 
comic  figure. 

Great  Britain  was  then  ruled  by  a  Queen  who 
was  an  aged  and  venerable  personality.  The 
Victorian  age  had  passed,  with  its  rather  stuify 
ideals  and  cramped  atmosphere  of  suppression, 
but  Queen  Victoria  still  survived.  A  large  sec- 
tion of  the  people  of  this  country  rather  envied 
Germany  its  dashing  young  monarch.  He  was 
a  **goer,"  to  use  a  current  phrase. 

At  this  epoch,  the  Kaiser  developed  the  hal^it 
of  sending  telegrams,  and  the  great  British 
nation  discovered  with  surprise  that  the  young 
man  was  not  friendly.  The  culminating  tele- 
gram to  President  Kruger  revealed  him  in  the 
light  of  an  impudent  busybody.  Far  too  much 
of  the  Kaiser,  was  the  verdict  of  our  enlight- 
ened race. 

King  Edward  came  to  the  throne,  and  we  be- 
gan to  think  much  better  of  France.  Our  old 
traditional  enemies  had  become  in  some  myste- 
rious way  our  best  friends.  We  no  longer  en- 
vied Germany  the  Kaiser;  we  had  a  go-ahead 
monarch  of  our  own. 

But  the  Kaiser  continued  to  mix  himself  in  our 


4  The  Real  Kaiser 

affairs  in  a  most  aggravating  way.  AVe  dis- 
covered that,  while  we  were  not  looking,  he  had 
actually  been  picking  up  colonies.  An  island 
here,  a  tract  of  useless  country  there,  a  naval 
station  somewhere  else.  Germany  a  colonising 
race !  How  absurd.  Of  course,  every  one  knew 
that  no  country  but  our  own  really  knew  any- 
thing about  colonising.  It  was  all  that  meddle- 
some Kaiser. 

Another  surprise  came  when  Mr.  Chamberlain 
announced  that  Germany  had  become  quite  a 
formidable  trade  rival.  ''Made  in  Germany" 
had  been  a  term  of  contempt.  It  meant  bad 
imitations  of  Sheffield  cutlery  and  Birmingham 
guns.  Knives  that  would  not  cut,  and  weapons 
with  gaspipe  barrels.  If  the  Tariff  Reform 
campaign  served  no  other  end,  it  awakened  the 
great  British  people  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
fact  that  in  many  respects  the  German  manu- 
facturer could  turn  out  goods  that  competed 
with  British  wares  in  the  open  market,  and  beat 
them.  In  this  the  hand  of  the  Kaiser  was  also 
apparent,  ^he  Kaiser  was  becoming  a  nui- 
sance. 

The  Kaiser  began  to  build  a  big  fleet.  He 
said  openly  that  Germany  intended  "to  grasp 
the   Trident."    Britain's    undisputed   title    of 


Who  is  the  Kaiser?  5 

Mistress  of  the  Seas  was  to  be  assailed.  What 
impudence!  The  Kaiser  could  never  do  it. 
''Master  of  the  Seize"  was  about  his  mark. 
Everybody  knew  that  Germans  were  not  good 
sailors,  and  Britons  were. 

But  the  question  became  an  urgent  one.  The 
half-penny  papers  took  it  up,  and  people  began 
to  talk  about  Dreadnoughts  and  the  ''Two- 
power  standard."  They  attended  public  meet- 
ings and  shouted  "We  want  eight,  and  we  won't 
wait."  They  thought  they  began  to  under- 
stand the  Kaiser  now ;  but  he  should  not  have  it 
all  his  own  way. 

Somebody  recalled  the  fact  that  Germany  had 
been  for  fifty  years  the  first  military  power  in 
the  world.  She  could  put  into  the  field  an  army 
ten  times  as  strong  as  the  British  army.  The 
German  soldier  was  better  equipped  and  better 
trained  than  the  British.  We  began  to  talk  of 
the  German  peril. 

The  Kaiser  loomed  on  the  British  mind  as  a 
sinister  figure,  the  monarch  of  the  mailed  fist. 
Something  had  to  be  done;  it  might  even  be 
necessary  to  do  something  soon.  Lord  Roberts 
had  decided  views,  and  advocated  conscription 
in  a  series  of  speeches  and  letters  which  invari- 
ably appeared  in  prominent  places  in  the  half- 


6  The  Real  Kaiser 

penny  papers  under  the  heading :  '  *  Lord  Kob- 
erts'  Grave  Warning."  At  first  they  rather 
spoiled  the  Briton's  matutinal  rasher.  But 
Lord  Milner  was  issuing  ''grave  warnings"  at 
the  time  about  South  Africa,  and  Lord  Cromer 
was  also  issuing  ''grave  warnings"  about 
Egypt.  The  headline  became  a  convenient  mark 
to  a  column  of  unpleasant  reading  matter  that 
could  be  judiciously  skipped. 

But  something  had  to  be  done.  Lord  Hal- 
dane  invented  the  Territorials,  and  Baden 
Powell  contrived  the  Boy  Scouts.  Mr.  Winston 
Churchill  took  charge  of  the  Admiralty,  and  we 
devised  the  Super-Dreadnought.  The  Britain 
paid  his  income  tax  with  the  comfortable  feel- 
ing that  we  were  now  ready  for  the  Kaiser, 
whatever  he  might  choose  to  say  or  do  next. 

Finally,  on  a  beautiful  Bank  Holiday,  when 
the  nation  had  just  prepared  to  knock  off  serious 
work  for  a  month  or  two,  the  amazing  thing 
happened.  The  Kaiser  threw  down  the  gauntlet 
to  the  whole  of  Europe.  It  was  not  a  gigantic 
bluff  after  all.    Incredible ! 

One  good  thing  about  it,  though;  we  knew 
where  we  were  with  the  Kaiser  at  last.  He  was 
mad,  and  worse  than  mad.  He  was  an  inhuman 
monster,  who  urged  on  his  troops  to  unheard 


WJw  is  the  Kaiser?  7 

brutalities.  A  greasy,  blasphemous  hypocrite, 
who  called  on  God  to  assist  him  in  his  designs, 
and  impiously  attributed  to  the  Almighty  the 
initial  success  that  crowned  his  arms. 

The  Mad-dog  Kaiser ! 

But,  from  the  time  that  he  came  to  the  throne 
to  the  present  moment,  the  British  people  has 
never  had  more  than  an  inkling  of  the  ideals,  the 
personality,  the  character,  and  the  potentialities 
of  the  real  Kaiser.  Their  conception  is  still  as 
inaccurate  as  the  description  of  his  position 
given  by  the  man  in  the  'bus,  ''The  Emperor  of 
Germany. ' ' 

Who,  then,  is  this  Kaiser? 

He  is  the  hereditaiy  King  of  Prussia,  and 
German  Emperor. 

In  the  latter  capacity  his  powers  are  defined 
by  a  constitution  promulgated  as  recently  as  the 
year  1871,  years  after  he  was  born.  He  is  the 
third  German  Emperor,  having  been  preceded 
by  his  grandfather,  Wilhelm  I,  and  by  his 
father,  Frederick,  who  died  of  a  painful  throat 
disease  after  a  reign  of  only  three  months. 

As  German  Emperor,  he  has  wide  powers 
over  a  nation  created  by  the  union  of  a  number 
of  Kingdoms,  Grand  Duchies,  Duchies,  and 
Principalities.     He  can  declare  a  defensive  war 


8  The  Real  Kaiser 

in  the  name  of  this  Empire,  and  he  can  make 
peace.  He  personally  appoints  his  own  ambas- 
sadors. He  also  appoints  the  ministers  of  the 
Empire. 

Legislation  for  the  German  Empire  is  nomi- 
nally assigned  to  a  Parliament  of  two  Houses  of 
Legislature.  The  Upper  House,  which  corre- 
sponds in  many  of  its  features  to  our  own  House 
of  Lords,  is  called  the  Bundesrat.  It  consists 
of  only  sixty-one  members,  who  are  nominated 
for  a  term  of  five  years  by  the  different  con- 
stituent Kingdoms,  Duchies,  and  Principalities 
of  the  Empire,  the  number  assigned  to  each  di- 
vision being  in  proportion  to  its  size  and  impor- 
tance in  the  Empire. 

The  Lower  House,  or  Reichstag,  bears  some 
similarity  to  our  own  House  of  Commons.  It 
consists  of  397  members,  assigned  to  the  constit- 
uent units  of  the  Empire  in  due  proportion,  and 
elected  by  popular  franchise  for  a  term  of  five 
years. 

The  Kaiser  appoints  his  own  ministers. 
They  do  not  form  a  cabinet,  as  in  Great  Britain, 
working  hand-in-hand  and  jointly  responsible 
to  a  Parliament  elected  by  the  people.  They 
administer  their  departments  independently  of 


Who  is  the  Kaiser?  9 

one  another,  though  there  is  a  sort  of  control 
exercised  over  all  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Em- 
pire: he  is  the  Kaiser's  right-hand  man.  He 
alone  is  responsible  to  the  Parliament,  and  the 
exact  degree  of  his  responsibility  is  undeter- 
mined. The  tendency  of  recent  chancellors  has 
been  to  dispute  anything  but  a  theoretical  re- 
sponsibility. The  Chancellor  presides  over  the 
sitting  of  the  Bundesrat,  or  Upper  House  of 
Parliament. 

To  become  law,  a  measure  must  be  passed  by 
an  absolute  majority  of  both  Houses.  It  must 
then  be  promulgated  by  the  Kaiser.  The  Min- 
istry has  the  power  to  initiate  legislation,  which 
Parliament  may  amend  or  even  reject.  In 
Great  Britain,  if  Parliament  rejected  a  minis- 
terial measure  there  would  be  a  change  of  gov- 
ernment, and  possibly  an  election.  In  Germany 
nothing  happens,  unless  the  Kaiser  should 
choose  to  prorogue  Parliament,  which  must 
again  be  assembled  within  thirty  days.  Or  he 
may  even  dissolve  it,  when  a  new  election  must 
be  held  within  sixty  days,  and  a  fresh  session 
within  ninety  days. 

Any  party  or  any  private  member  may  also 
initiate  legislature.    It  may  pass  both  Houses, 


10  The  Real  Kaiser 

but  in  that  case  it  cannot  become  law  unless  the 
Kaiser  chooses  to  promulgate  it.  In  the  case  of 
the  Kaiser's  refusal,  nothing  happens. 

In  theory,  the  Kaiser  and  the  people's  repre- 
sentatives have  equal  powers  in  initiating  and 
blocking  legislature.  In  practice  it  does  not 
work  out  equally  at  all.  If  the  Reichstag 
checks  the  Kaiser's  laws,  it  is  probably  dis- 
solved, and  there  is  a  fresh  Parliament.  If  the 
Kaiser  blocks  a  party  measure,  nothing  can  be 
done  about  it.  The  end  of  it  is  that  the  Kaiser, 
through  his  ministers,  proposes  the  laws  of 
Germany,  which  Parliament  at  most  can  criti- 
cise and  amend. 

When  the  King  'of  England  is  going  to  make  a 
speech,  the  fact  is  known  to  his  ministers,  who 
are  responsible  to  the  people  of  the  country. 
The  speech  is  prepared  for  him,  and  counter- 
signed by  a  responsible  minister,  usually  the 
Prime  Minister  himself.  Nobody  knows  when 
the  Kaiser  is  going  to  make  a  speech ;  not  even 
the  Kaiser  himself  sometimes.  Yet,  when  he 
speaks,  he  speaks  in  the  name  of  the  German 
Empire. 

When  Great  Britain  makes  war,  as  we  have 
recently  seen,  there  is  a  meeting  of  Parliament, 
and  the  Foreign  Minister  explains  the  necessity 


Who  is  the  Kaiser'?  11 

of  so  gTave  a  step.  He  describes  in  detail  the 
negotiations  which  led  to  such  a  jDosition,  so 
that  every  citizen  of  the  British  Empire  may  be 
as  fully  in  possession  of  the  facts  as  himself  and 
his  colleagues.  It  is  possible  that,  in  the  fu- 
ture, even  the  secret  negotiations  which  precede 
a  declaration  of  war  will  be  made  public  as  they 
proceed,  so  that  Britons  may  be  fully  informed 
of  the  causes  of  dispute  as  it  proceeds. 

The  Kaiser  simply  declares  war,  and  the  Ger- 
man people  have  to  take  his  word  for  it  that  it  is 
a  defensive  war. 

'It  will  be  plain,  from  this  brief  outline  of  the 
powers  possessed  by  the  Kaiser,  that  he  wields 
an  enoi-mous  power,  compared  with  which  the 
powers  possessed  by  an  English  constitutional 
monarch  are  as  nothing.  The  looseness  of  the 
German  Imperial  constitution  makes  it  possible 
for  these  powers  to  be  pushed  to  the  verge  of 
absolute  autocracy. 

The  power  wielded  by  Wilhelm  I  was  as  noth- 
ing to  the  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Kaiser  to- 
day. Then  Germany  was  a  poor  but  warlike 
nation,  struggling  through  battle  and  aggression 
into  a  national  existence. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  KAISER'S  INHERITANCE 
"I  take  all  life  for  my  province." — The  Kaiser's  Motto, 

The  first  picture  we  have  of  William  II  is  that 
of  a  pale-faced  flaxen-haired  youngster  of  five, 
who  distinguished  himself  at  the  wedding  of  his 
uncle,  afterwards  King  Edward  VII.  His  ca- 
pacity for  mischief  was  already  very  consider- 
able, and  Bishop  Wilberf  orce  relates  that  he  was 
handed  over  to  the  Dukes  of  Connaught  and 
Edinburgh,  who  were  asked  to  keep  him  in  or- 
der. After  a  little  trouble  he  relapsed  into  a 
suspicious  quiet,  which  was  followed  by  smoth- 
ered exclamations  of  pain.  He  had  crept  under 
a  chair  and  bitten  both  his  uncles  severely  in  the 
calves  of  their  legs. 

The  Duko  of  Argyll,  who  saw  him  on  the  same 
occasion,  formed  a  high  opinion  of  his  spirit 
and  ability.  "William  will  be  the  cleverest 
King  of  Prussia  since  Frederick  the  Great,"  he 
wrote.  But  the  Duke  had  not  been  bitten  in  the 
calf  of  the  leg. 

He  was  the  first  of  the  Hohenzollerns  to  be 

12 


The  Kaiser  s  Inheritance  13 

educated  at  the  ordinary  German  public  school, 
being  sent  to  the  "gymnasium"  at  Cassel,  at  the 
express  wish  of  his  grandfather,  the  great 
Kaiser.  This  step  caused  much  criticism  on  the 
part  of  the  old  Prussian  nobility,  who  disap- 
proved of  it  entirely.  They  blamed  his  Eng- 
lish mother,  who  was  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Queen  Victoria,  for  this,  as  for  everything  about 
the  Court  of  which  they  did  not  approve.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  she  had  no  more  to  do  with  it 
than  any  one  else,  the  idea  being  entirely  that 
of  the  Emperor. 

At  school  William  fared  as  the  other  boys, 
doing  his  tasks  and  having  to  submit  to  the  same 
discipline  as  the  rest.  His  clothing  was  pur- 
posely of  the  very  plainest,  so  that  there  should 
be  no  undue  distinction  between  him  and  the 
rest  of  the  boys,  many  of  whom  belonged  to  the 
burgher  class.  There  are  many  stout  German 
citizens  to-day  who  can  tell  you  they  went  to 
school  with  the  Kaiser;  so  many,  in  fact,  that 
one  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  a 
very  large  as  well  as  a  very  famous  gymnasium 
at  Cassel. 

From  the  university  he  went  to  the  army, 
where  two  circumstances  militated  against  him. 
The  first  was  a  physical  deformity,  which  has  af- 


14  The  Real  Kaiser 

flicted  him  from  birth;  his  left  arm  is  shorter 
than  his  right,  and  his  left  hand  is  withered. 
This  misfortune  was  always  a  topic  of  conversa- 
tion in  Junkerdom,  and  was  blamed,  like  many- 
other  things,  upon  the  ' '  Englishwoman. ' '  Con- 
stant treatment  by  massage,  and  the  best  medi- 
cal science,  could  avail  nothing  to  restore  the 
use  of  the  left  hand,  and  the  disadvantage  to  a 
young  man  in  a  cavalry  regiment  may  well  be 
imagined. 

That  initial  disadvantage  he  overcame  by 
sheer  pluck  and  hard  work,  by  dint  of  enthusi- 
asm and  grit.  He  made  a  splendid  soldier,  as  his 
tutor,  Dr.  Hinzpeter,  records.  He  learned  to 
ride  wonderfully  well  for  a  man  deprived  of  the 
use  of  one  hand,  and  in  all  other  branches  of  the 
profession  of  arms  strove  to  excel  by  virtue  of 
application  and  genuine  liking.  The  young 
William  was  no  feather-bed  soldier,  and  ex- 
torted the  unwilling  admiration  of  his  brothers 
in  arms  by  tjie  readiness  with  which  he  tackled 
the  least  pleasant  of  his  military  duties. 

It  was  unwilling  admiration,  because  the  leg- 
end of  the  Englishwoman  had  followed  him  to 
the  army.  He  was  suspected  of  being  more 
English  than  German,  just  as  his  father  was  al- 
ways suspected  by  the  military  caste  of  being 


The  Kaiser* 8  Inheritance  15 

completely  under  the  thumb  of  his  English  wife. 
William  never  missed  an  opportunity  for  break- 
ing down  this  idea  about  himself. 

On  his  return  to  his  regiment  after  a  visit  to 
England  he  announced  himself  a  pronounced 
Anglophobe,  and  continually  inveighed,  in  sea- 
son and  out,  against  England,  Englishmen,  and 
English  ways.  One  day,  on  return  to  barracks 
after  duty,  his  nose  began  to  bleed, 

"What's  the  matter?"  asked  a  comrade. 

''That,  thank  God,"  said  William,  "is  the  last 
drop  of  English  blood  draining  out  of  my  sys- 
tem. ' ' 

The  same  consistent  policy  of  Anglophobia  ob- 
tained for  him  a  wide  popularity  while  yet  his 
father  stood  between  him  and  the  inheritance  of 
the  throne.  To  him  the  aristocracy  looked  to 
thwart  the  hated  Englishwoman,  and  the  Press 
and  people  of  Germany  learned  to  acclaim  his 
attitude  easily  enough.  The  hopes  of  Germany 
were  fixed,  not  on  the  Crown  Prince,  but  on  the 
son  of  the  Crown  Prince. 

It  is  doubtful  if  the  unpopularity  of  the  lady 
who  was  afterwards  the  Empress  Frederick  has 
ever  been  measured  in  this  country.  Her  name 
is  still  received  with  a  growl  by  any  old  German 
who  hears  it  mentioned.     She  was  hated  the 


16  The  Real  Kaiser 

more  because  she  was  so  often  right.  "A  har- 
binger of  culture  in  a  race  of  savages/'  Maxi- 
milian Harden  has  called  her. 

But  she  ran  counter  to  all  the  pre-conceived 
German  ideas  of  the  place  of  a  woman  in  the 
realm.  *'I  was  sorry  for  the  poor  woman," 
said  Bismarck,  when  reproached  for  his  share  in 
the  sorry  treatment  accorded  to  her,  ''but  a  gen- 
tlewoman who  dabbles  in  politics  herself  for- 
goes her  rights  as  a  gentlewoman."  For  his 
share  in  the  persecution  of  the  Empress,  retri- 
bution was  to  overtake  the  Iron  Chancellor,  just 
as  retribution  has  overtaken  William  for  his 
treatment  of  his  parents.  Bismarck  even  ap- 
pealed to  his  victim  to  mediate  between  him  and 
her  son,  but  was  sorrowfully  told  that  would  be 
vain. 

The  crowning  offence  of  the  Empress  Fred- 
erick was  the  summoning  of  a  British  doctor  to 
attend  her  husband  in  his  fatal  illness.  The  dis- 
satisfaction, of  the  German  people  is  easily  un- 
derstood. German  physicians,  then  as  now, 
stood  at  the  very  summit  of  their  profession. 
Medical  teaching  and  medical  practice  in  Ger- 
many were  held  to  be  in  advance  of  the  rest  of 
the  world.     The  Germans  resented  the  British 


The  Kaiser's  Inheritance  17 

doctor  being  called  in,  and  one  must  admit,  the 
resentment  was  just. 

If  the  Queen  of  England  were  a  German 
woman,  German  in  sympathy,  German  in  ideas, 
a  zealous  propagandist  of  German  customs,  and 
surrounded  herself  with  Germans,  she  would 
not  be  a  popular  queen.  If  her  husband  were 
mortally  iU,  and  she  summoned  a  German  phy- 
sician to  his  bedside,  refusing  all  British  doctors 
access  to  him,  she  would  incur  the  detestation 
of  this  people.  She  would  be  saddled  with  part 
af  the  blame  for  his  death,  as  the  Empress 
Frederick  was  saddled.  The  parallel  is  so  far 
from  being  an  extravagant  one  that  it  falls  short 
of  the  actual  facts. 

The  circumstance  of  the  Empress's  wide  un- 
popularity saved  William  from  the  reprobation 
he  deserved  for  his  conduct  after  the  death  of 
his  father.  Time  has  dulled  the  sense  of  shock 
which  followed  the  announcement  of  it  in  this 
country,  but  recent  events  have  recalled  the  cal- 
lous and  unfilial  behaviour  of  the  young  Em- 
peror. While  his  dead  father's  body  was  yet 
lying  in  the  Palace  at  Friedrichskron,  he  sur- 
rounded the  building  with  a  strong  body  of 
soldiers,  headed  by  a  German  officer,  whose 


18  The  Real  Kaiser 

reputation  for  brutality  and  recklessness  was  a 
bye-word  even  in  Germany,  and  started  to  ran- 
sack the  building. 

The  alleged  object  of  this  outrage  on  the  dead 
was  the  search  for  the  memoirs  of  his  father, 
which  were  said  to  cover  a  period  of  thirty 
years.  It  was  given  out  that  it  was  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Empress  Frederick  to  publish  these 
memoirs,  to  the  prejudice  of  Germany  and  its 
new  Kaiser.  With  this  explanation  the  people 
of  Germany  were  readily  content. 

It  is  possible  only  to  hint  at  the  insults  he 
heaped  upon  his  mother  and  the  memory  of  his 
father.  The  name  of  the  Potsdam  palace  was 
changed  from  Friedrichskron  to  Neues  Palais, 
its  original  title.  The  Dowager  Empress  was 
turned  out  with  a  celerity  that  evoked  protest, 
even  in  Germany.  A  gross  and  brutal  open- 
ness characterised  the  Kaiser's  conduct  to  his 
mother.  He  wished  the  meanest  of  his  subjects 
to  understand  that  he,  at  least,  was  not  under 
the  thumb  of  the  meddlesome  Englishwoman. 
His  conduct  was  as  calculated  as  it  was  cruel, 
and  with  a  more  susceptible  race  would  have 
earned  him  an  initial  distrust. 

Not  so  in  Germany.     The  people  responded 


The  Kaiser's  Inheritance  19 

promptly  to  the  appeal  he  made  in  his  proclama- 
tions. 

He  spoke  directly  to  the  masses,  then  as  now 
groaning  under  the  heavy  burden  that  is  laid 
upon  the  working  class  in  Germany. 

"I  will  continue  my  endeavours  to  make  Im- 
perial legislation  render  in  the  future  to  the 
working  classes  that  protection  which,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principles  of  Christian  mor- 
ality, it  is  able  to  extend  to  the  weak  and  op- 
pressed in  their  struggle  for  existence.  I  hope 
that  in  this  way  it  will  be  possible  to  effect  an 
adjustment  of  unhealthy  social  contrasts." 

To  the  Amiy  he  addressed  himself  even  more 
persuasively : — 

''We  belong  to  each  other,  I  and  the  Army; 
thus  we  were  born  for  one  another:  and  firmly 
and  inseparably  we  will  hold  together,  whether 
it  be  God's  Will  to  give  us  peace  or  storm.  I 
solemnly  vow  always  to  be  mindful  of  the  fact 
that  the  eyes  of  my  ancestors  are  looking  down 
upon  me  from  the  other  world,  and  that  one  day 
I  shall  have  to  render  to  them  an  account  of 
both  the  glory  and  the  honour  of  the  Army. ' ' 

To  the  world  at  large  he  promised  the  bless- 
ing of  peace,  if  possible. 


20  The  Real  Kaiser 

**I  am  determined  to  keep  peace  with  every 
one,  so  far  as  it  lies  in  my  power.  My  love  for 
the  German  Army,  and  the  position  I  occupy  in 
regard  to  it,  will  never  lead  me  into  the  tempta- 
tion to  endanger  the  benefits  which  the  country 
derives  from  peace,  provided,  of  course,  that 
war  does  not  become  a  necessity,  forced  upon 
us  by  an  attack  upon  the  Empire,  or  its  Allies." 

The  first  two  promises  were  accepted  unhesi- 
tatingly by  those  to  whom  they  were  addressed. 
The  third  was  taken  in  the  way  it  was  intended^ 
both  by  the  Germans  and  by  other  nations.  It 
was  read,  as  every  succeeding  utterance  of  the 
Kaiser  was  read,  as  the  mark  of  a  new  and 
heavy-handed  regime.  For  many  a  year  to 
come  the  young  Kaiser  gave  the  diplomats  an 
anxious  time.  He  was  continually  praising 
peace,  and  hinting  at  war.  It  was  a  way  of 
speaking  which  gave  satisfaction  to  all  classes 
in  Germany,  for  it  could  be  read  in  any  way  that 
suited. 

It  was  as  the  young  Kaiser  that  the  new  Em- 
peror came  before  his  people.  William  the 
Great  was  ninety  when  he  died.  He  had  been 
surrounded  by  old  men,  hard  heads  like  Bis- 
marck, and  grizzled  warriors  of  the  von  Moltke 
type.     There  was  nothing  at  the  end  of  his 


The  Kaiser's  Inheritance  21 

reign  to  appeal  to  the  sentiment  and  hope  of  the 
German  people.  He  stood  for  hard  fighting, 
and  hard,  distasteful  work.  An  emblem  of 
glory,  bnt  glory  won  hardly  and  painfully. 

Friedrich  had  been  a  popular  figure  once — 
**Unser  Fritz,"  the  generous  prince  who  loved 
peace,  but  fought  as  boldly  as  a  lion.  But  he 
came  to  the  throne  a  dying  man,  and  under  the 
thumb  of  the  hated  Englishwoman. 

Now  there  came  upon  the  scene  a  young 
Kaiser,  a  fine  personable  man,  and  a  German  to 
his  finger  tips.  His  English  taint  was  forgot- 
ten, for  he  had  disowned  his  British  blood  by  the 
most  dramatic  and  public  conduct  of  which  an 
Emperor  could  be  capable.  His  physical  de- 
formity was  overlooked,  for  he  had  learned  to 
hide  it  by  an  application  that  was  Spartan  in  its 
thoroughness.  He  had  a  typical  German  Con- 
sort, known  throughout  the  Empire  for  her  ad- 
herence to  the  old  German  ways.  He  made  a 
big  bid  for  popularity,  and  he  won  it  easily. 

He  came  with  fine  promises  in  his  mouth.  He 
was  the  ''Arbeiter  Kaiser,"  the  Emperor  who 
would  deliver  the  downtrodden  workers  of  Ger- 
many. He  was  the  new  Warlord,  one  in  senti- 
ment and  soul  with  that  great  institution  the 
Germany  army.     He  was  the  Kaiser  who  would 


22  The  Real  Kaiser 

ensure  surcease  from  war  to  liis  tired  people  by 
the  methods  a  German  best  understands — 
threats  and  a  great  show  of  force. 

Moreover,  he  showed  himself  generous,  as  be- 
came a  young  man.  It  was  soon  evident  that  he 
had  a  strong  vein  of  sentiment.  His  old 
friends,  the  members  of  his  student  corps  and 
the  fellow  oflScers  in  his  regiment  quickly  began 
to  know  it.  To  have  studied  or  served  with  the 
Kaiser  was  a  passport  to  his  notice,  and  a  sure 
way  to  rapid  promotion.  These  things  were 
noised  abroad,  and  he  was  liked  for  them.  It 
is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  record  them  now. 

He  acted  on  impulse,  as  he  does  to-day,  and 
his  impulses  wfere  generous  ones.  Gossip 
busied  itself  with  a  hundred  little  acts,  com- 
mitted on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  impetuous 
deeds  that  interested  the  Germans  as  they  in- 
terested the  outside  world.  His  interests  were 
wide,  and  impinged  on  those  of  every  class  of 
the  community.  And  he  had  the  domestic  vir- 
tues. Finally  he  made  a  big  stir  in  the  outside 
world,  and  that  flattered  the  Germans.  They 
had  somebody  at  last  to  proclaim  their  virtues 
and  accomplishments  to  Christendom.  No 
cock  in  the  farm-yard  of  the  world  crowed  so 


The  Kaiser's  Inheritance  23 

loudly,  or  with  so  shrill  a  note  of  defiance,  as 
theirs. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  new  Kaiser 
succeeded  to  his  inheritance  in  a  blaze  of  popu- 
larity. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  KAISER  AS  FIGUREHEAD 

"I  regard  my  whole  position  as  given  to  me  direct  from 
Heaven,  and  that  I  have  been  called  by  the  Highest  to  do 
His  work,  by  One  to  whom  I  must  one  day  render  an  ac- 
count."— The  Kaiser. 

WiioLiAM  ascended  the  throne  with  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  great  part  he  was  to  play  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  If  anything,  he  exagger- 
ated his  powers  and  responsibilities,  as  well  as 
his  personal  ability  to  fulfil  those  responsibili- 
ties. He  openly  proclaimed  his  belief  in  the  di- 
vine right  of  Kings,  and  his  intention  to  act  up 
to  that  belief. 

Some  description  of  the  man  and  his  King- 
ship is  due. 

Not  over-tall — it  is  claimed  that  he  is  five  feet 
eight  inches  in  height — his  fine  military''  car- 
riage gives  him  the  appearance  of  being  a  big 
man.  The  uniforms  he  customarily  wears,  with 
their  spiked  helmets,  add  to  this  effect  of  great 
stature.  The  illusion  is  heightened  by  an  air 
of  conscious  dignity  and  might  that  is  rare,  even 
among  the  great  ones  of  the  earth. 

24 


The  Kaiser  as  Figurehead  25 

The  most  noticeable  of  liis  features  are  his 
eyes — grey,  shot  with  a  peculiar  yellow  glint. 
They  are  slightly  prominent,  and  their  custom- 
ary expression  is  a  stare,  which  has  something 
of  curiosity  in  its  haughty  pride.  Those  unac- 
customed to  that  stare  become  readily  embar- 
rassed by  it.  When  the  Kaiser  is  displeased,  the 
pupils  roll  sideways,  displaying  the  whites  of 
the  eye,  after  the  fashion  of  some  ferocious  ani- 
mal. 

The  Kaiser's  complexion  is  slightly  pallid, 
but  clear,  and  indicative  of  clean  living  and  ac- 
tive habits.  His  hair  is  plentiful,  his  mouth  firm 
but  gross,  and  his  forehead  high.  The  touch 
of  art  is  supplied  to  his  countenance  by  the  ag- 
gressive military  twist  to  the  moustache,  famil- 
iar to  every  one  who  ever  heard  of  the  Kaiser. 
Afoot,  the  Kaiser  carries  himself  like  a  soldier 
and  a  gentleman ;  on  horseback,  like  a  conquer- 
ing King. 

His  manner  is  usually  stern,  but  can,  on  occa- 
sions, be  gracious,  friendly,  and  even  jovial. 
This  is  particularly  the  case  when  he  is  talking 
to  foreign  men  of  note,  or  to  pretty  women. 
The  repose  of  his  manner  is  broken  by  the  ex- 
cessive use  of  his  right  hand,  with  which  he  con- 
stantly   gesticulates.     Those    who    know    him 


26  The  Real  Kaiser 

well  are  able  to  judge  his  humour  by  the  move- 
ments of  that  hand;  when  annoyed,  he  tugs  at 
his  ear;  when  interested,  his  finger  is  pressed 
on  the  tip  of  his  nose.  He  walks  about  rest- 
lessly, or  shifts  the  weight  of  his  body  from  one 
foot  to  the  other  as  he  talks. 

His  conduct  to  those  surrounding  him  is  cus- 
tomarily overbearing  and  imperious.  He  pours 
forth  a  torrent  of  questions,  and  does  not  ap- 
pear to  listen  to  the  answers;  but  it  is  after- 
wards found  that  he  has  heard  all  he  wants  to 
hear.  He  is  impatient  of  the  opinions  of  men 
of  independent  minds,  and  takes  no  advice. 
This  renders  him  accessible  to  the  influence  of 
skilful  flatterers,  a  class  with  whom  all  mon- 
archs  are  more  or  less  surrounded. 

He  has  survived  middle  age  regally.  His 
figure  has  filled  out,  but  shows  no  trace  of  the 
fatness  which  aflQicts  the  elderly  people  of  the 
German  race.  His  hair  has  gone  grey,  and  is 
less  abundant.  His  moustache  has  lost  some  of 
its  aggressive  upward  curve,  and  the  face  is  the 
better  for  the  modification.  The  smiles  that 
sometimes  lightened  it  have  disappeared  in  a 
monotonous  sternness,  and  his  geniality  appears 
to  have  degenerated  into  a  sort  of  ferocious  jo- 


i 


The  Kaiser  as  Figurehead  27 

viality.     Even  this  lias  been  very  rare  with  him 
recently. 

The  qualities  of  his  mind,  more  than  his  fine 
person,  give  him  the  magnetism  that  is  the  at- 
tribute of  a  truly  remarkable  man.  No  crowd 
is  more  critical  of  foreign  Kings  than  a  London 
crowd,  for  London  has  for  centuries  been  the 
Mecca  of  Emperors  and  Princes.  His  hold  on 
the  London  crowd  has  always  been  pronounced, 
never  more  so  than  on  the  occasion  of  his  last 
visit  to  England,  the  thirteenth  he  has  paid. 
'  During  that  visit,  the  writer  was  watching 
the  mournful  funeral  procession  of  King  Ed- 
ward, with  an  Australian  friend,  who  caught  his 
first  glimpse  of  the  Kaiser  as  he  rode  by  with 
King  George,  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  royal 
mourners.  The  dominating  personality  of  the 
Kaiser  gripped  the  Australian  in  a  second,  and 
he  expressed  his  feeling  brutally  but  forcibly. 
''He  makes  that  foreign  lot  look  as  though  they 
ought  to  be  walking  in  chains  behind-  the  bier. ' ' 
And  we  were  both  rather  proud  of  the  Kaiser's 
strain  of  English  blood. 

I  have  seen  him  often  in  his  own  country,  and 
his  appearance  always  caused  something  of  a 
thrill.     Driving  through  the  streets  of  Berlin, 


28  The  Real  Kaiser 

"the  accursed  city,"  as  lie  called  it,  early  in 
1909,  and  returning  the  glance  of  derision  of  his 
incensed  subjects  with  interest.  Dashing  up  to 
a  provincial  town  to  unveil  some  "Denkynal," 
all  smiles  and  graciousness,  and  motoring  off 
after  the  brief  ceremony.  At  a  review,  sur- 
rounded by  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of 
German  militarism.  At  Hamburg,  receiving 
the  greetings  of  a  city  where  civic  life  is  exalted 
to  a  degree  that  will  even  compare  with  that  of 
London.  Always  he  looked  and  acted  as  one 
of  the  great  Emperors  of  all  time. 

The  Kaiser  brought  to  Germany  a  new  sense 
of  greatness.  His  era  substituted  prosperity 
for  poverty,  industrialism  for  agriculture,  ma- 
terialism for  idealism,  and  expansion  for  mere 
self-sufficiency.  The  Germany  he  found,  placed 
a  ring  of  steel  around  its  furthest  borders,  and 
defied  the  world  to  cross  it.  He  created  a  Ger- 
many that  went  forth  into  the  world,  and  dis- 
played its  impenetrable  armour  in  every  remote 
corner  of  it.    At  least,  he  strove  to  do  so. 

He  recognised  the  immensity  of  the  task  be- 
fore him,  but  never  cherished  one  fleeting  doubt 
of  his  capacity  to  perform  it.  But  he  would  do 
it  himself.  Behind  his  grandfather  had  stood 
wise  old  Bismarck,  pulling  every  string  of  the 


I 


The  Kaiser  as  Figurehead  29 

state  machine.  He  held  Bismarck  his  "Hett- 
mann,"  the  man  to  do  "the  donkey-work." 
The  Kaiser  never  intended  to  be  a  mere  figure- 
head. 

But  as  a  figurehead  he  scored  his  greatest  suc- 
cesses. From  one  land  to  another  he  sped,  the 
personification  of  the  new  Imperial  Germany. 
Everywhere  he  created  the  just  and  calculated 
effect,  while  the  German  people,  not  understand- 
ing, dubbed  him  "William  the  Wanderer." 
He  himself  could  not  go  as  far  afield  as  America, 
but  he  sent  his  brother  to  represent  him,  and 
created  new  ties  between  Germany  and  America, 
the  value  of  which  can  be  estimated  to-day.  He 
landed  in  Morocco,  and  delayed  a  settlement  of 
the  Moroccan  question  by  many  years.  He 
journeyed  to  Palestine,  and  left  behind  him  his 
handiwork  on  the  lasting  fabric  of  Moham- 
medanism. Everywhere  he  went  it  was  the 
same.  He  touched  nothing  that  he  did  not  in 
some  way  alter. 

Two  sentiments  alone  he  could  not  affect: 
they  were  the  just  hatred  of  France,  and  the  im- 
permeable suspicion  of  Great  Britain. 

Within  Germany  his  influence  was  precisely 
the  same.  He  made  no  secret  of  the  fact  that 
he  did  not  like  things  as  he  found  them,  and  he 


30  The  Real  Kaiser 

set  out  on  the  task  of  moulding  tliem  to  his  de- 
sires with  a  high  resolve.  No  man  ever  lived  a 
more  purposeful  life,  or  affected  so  much. 
Change  was  the  essence  of  what  the  Germans 
call  ^'Kaisertum.'^ 

He  came  to  a  town  that  had  not  been  touched 
for  centuries,  and  frowned.  He  looked  round 
him,  then  waved  his  arm  with  a  huge  sweeping 
gesture.  The  visitor  returning  to  that  town 
after  a  year  or  two  would  see  new  grey  stone 
buildings  everywhere ;  a  factory  here,  and  a  big 
school  there.  The  Kaiser  made  quiet  places 
hum  with  life. 

He  chose  his  servants  to  create  a  German 
navy,  and  they  made  a  wonderful  navy  in  a  short 
time ;  though  it  was  only  a  new  one.  His  influ- 
ence spread  through  the  worlds  of  commerce, 
finance,  shipping;  and  everywhere  there  were 
new  and  flourishing  growths.  Of  course  there 
were  failures,  and  where  Germany  fails,  it  fails 
monumentally. 

He  turned  his  gaze  upon  the  habits  of  the 
German  people,  and  found  much  there  of  which 
he  did  not  approve.  He  set  out  imperiously  to 
change  it.  He  issued  orders  telling  the  people 
how  to  behave  at  table;  what  clothes  to  wear 
and  when,  how  to  behave  at  dances,  at  theatres, 


The  Kaiser  as  Figurehead  81 

at  cliurcli,  in  the  street.  They  were  all  excel- 
lent rules,  but  Germany  cannot  afford  to  pay 
enough  policemen  to  see  that  they  are  carried 
out. 

He  took  the  women  in  hand,  and  issued  sharp 
rules  for  their  conduct. 

No  lady  must  ride  astride.  No  German  lady 
who  respects  herself  will  fly  to  the  rouge  or 
powder  pot.  All  German  girls  must  learn  to 
play  tennis.  And  a  hundred  other  orders, 
which  the  women  did  their  best  to  carry  out. 

He  turned  his  attention  to  education,  art, 
science,  drama,  and  a  hundred  other  things. 
His  speeches  on  such  subjects  created  a  good 
deal  of  amusement ;  but  he  lived  down  laughter 
and  effected  change.  It  will  be  interesting  to 
examine  whether  these  changes  were  all  for  the 
better. 

But  in  Germany,  as  in  the  outside  world,  he 
encountered  two  factors  that  were  not  in  any 
way  susceptible  to  his  great  influence.  They 
were  the  German  Army  and  the  German  Aris- 
tocracy. 

The  topmost  rank  of  Germany's  nobility,  out- 
side the  actual  reigning  houses  of  the  German 
states,  are  the  descendants  of  deposed  princes. 
There  were  once  300  little  states  in  Germany, 


32  The  Real  Kaiser 

and  the  old  ruling  families  in  these  states  have 
mostly  survived  the  extinction  of  their  princi- 
palities. Some  fifty  families  retain  their 
princely  titles,  and  there  are  still  more  families 
which  retain  the  tradition.  All  these  families 
form  a  top  grade  of  Gemian  aristocracy.  Few 
of  them  deign  to  mix  themselves  in  the  new 
German  commercialism,  though  some  have  done 
so  with  a  very  startling  effect.  The  majority 
are  landowners;  poor,  discontented,  and  pos- 
sessed with  a  martial  tradition.  Their  influ- 
ence at  Court,  in  the  Army,  and  as  a  class,  is  all 
exercised  in  one  direction ;  it  is  not  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Germany's  peaceful  expansion. 

But  they  constitute  the  power  behind  the 
throne;  they  compose  the  political  party  on 
which  the  ministries  of  the  Kaiser  have  always 
depended  in  the  last  instance  for  support.  The 
problem  of  retaining  this  conservative  support, 
and  effecting  at  the  same  time  his  policy  of 
change,  supplied  the  struggle  of  William's  life. 
On  the  new  German  commercial  element  he  has 
always  been  able  personally  to  rely,  though  they 
continually  complained  of  his  ''dallying  with 
Junkerdom,"  His  attempt  to  obtain  the  sup- 
port of  the  masses  he  frankly  abandoned  in  the 
very  early  days  of  his  reign. 


The  Kaiser  as  Figurehead  33 

The  meaning  of  the  cruel  set  to  his  coarse 
mouth  comes  out  in  the  bitterness  with  which  he 
threw  off  his  early  affection  for  the  proletariat, 
when  he  recognised  that  his  attempt  to  conciliate 
it  could  not  be  maintained.  "To  me,"  he  de- 
clared, ''the  word  Social  Democrat  is  synony- 
mous with  enemy  of  the  Empire  and  the  Father- 
land." 

In  outside  affairs  it  was  the  same.  There  was 
nothing  he  coveted  more  than  the  personal 
friendship  of  King  Edward,  which  was  tact- 
fully withheld.  It  was  reported  to  him  that 
King  Edward  had  remarked,  after  one  of  the 
Kaiser's  characteristic  outbursts  on  Germany's 
future  naval  supremacy, ' '  Oh !  let  him  play  with 
his  ships."  The  report  was  probably  a  false 
one,  but  the  Kaiser  credited  it. 

His  chagrin  peeped  out  in  the  famous  letter  he 
wrote  to  Lord  Tweedmouth ;  a  private  letter,  as 
it  was  explained  at  the  time,  and  written  to  an 
intimate,  after  dinner.  But  it  has  been  impos- 
sible to  suppress  his  reference  to  Lord  Esher, 
whom  he  estimated  as  a  valued  servant  and  per- 
sonal friend  of  the  late  King.  "Let  Lord 
Esher  attend  to  the  drains  at  Windsor  Castle," 
is  the  bowdlerised  version  of  the  intended  re- 
tort, directed  not  to  the  servant,  but  to  the  royal 


34  The  Real  Kaiser 

master.  That  outburst,  due  to  a  rejection  of 
proffered  advances,  is  very  enlightening  in  view 
of  what  has  occurred  since.  It  is  a  startling 
revelation  of  what  lay  beneath  that  imperial 
dignity,  and  appearance  of  royal  good  humour. 
It  serves  as  a  useful  index  to  the  grossness,  not 
only  of  the  German  Emperor,  but  of  the  whole 
German  nation. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  KAISER  AS  ORATOR 

"That  such  great  oratory  should  be  the  gift  of  a  person 
who  happens  to  be  the  German  Emperor  is  a  fact  of  far- 
reaching  importance." — Eiuil  Reich. 

There  has  recently  been  published  a  little  book 
which  contains  an  excellent  collection  of  the 
more  important  utterances  of  the  Kaiser,  trans- 
lated into  spirited  English.  The  compiler  has 
chosen  to  introduce  them  with  a  preface,  from 
which  is  taken  the  following  passage.  '*  Never 
has  he  coined  one  illuminating  thought,  fash- 
ioned one  lasting  phrase.  Napoleon  said  a  thou- 
sand things  worth  repeating,  the  Kaiser  not  a 
single  one.  Yet  few  monarchs  have  chattered 
more,  or  ranged  over  so  impudently  wide  a 
field." 

It  is  conceivable  that  if  a  book  of  extracts 
from  the  speeches  of  Mr.  Lloyd  George  were 
now  being  published  in  Leipsic — as  may  well  be 
the  case — the  German  compiler  would  couch  his 
introduction  in  similar  language.  It  would  be 
admirably  suited  to  the  present  temper  of  the 

35 


36  The  Real  Kaiser 

German  people,  and  the  light  in  which  they  wish 
to. regard  Englishmen.  The  fact  that  the  con- 
tents of  the  book  would  contradict  the  verdict  of 
the  compiler  might  escape  notice,  for  German 
logic  is  no  more  proof  against  hatred  and  prej- 
udice than  is  British. 

If  it  were  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  trade  on 
the  very  just  obloquy  in  which  its  subject  is  now 
held  in  this  country,  it  would  be  easy  to  show 
that  the  Kaiser  is  a  contemptible  chatterer, 
whose  words  are  only  sped  by  the  might  of  the 
position  he  inherited.  But  not  in  this  way  can 
the  significance  of  the  real  Kaiser  be  reached. 

The  plain  fact  is  that  the  Kaiser  is  one  of  the 
first  orators  of  his  age.  He  stands  out  as  an 
eloquent  exponent  of  ideas  that  have  often 
shocked  by  their  very  extravagance  a  speaker 
who,  whether  he  were  king  or  workman,  would, 
by  sheer  force  of  conviction,  rhetoric,  and  per- 
sonality, have  compelled  the  ears  of  any  assem- 
blage he  might  address.  His  phrases  are  in 
everybody's  mouth  to-day;'  they  will  ring 
through  the  centuries  because  they  express  so 
exactly  and  forcibly  the  idea  he  strove  to  im- 
press. 

We  repeat  'Hhe  mailed  fist,"  ''grasping  the 
trident,"  and  "a  place  in  the  sun,"  not  because 


The  Kaiser  as  Orator  37 

they  were  coined  by  an  Emperor,  but  because 
they  crystallise  in  a  few  words  great  basic  ideas. 
Who  can  doubt  that,  like  "Delenda  est  Carth- 
ago," or  ''Civis  Eomanus  sum,"  they  will  live 
for  ever  as  vivid  expressions  of  gigantic  na- 
tional ambitions? 

The  Kaiser's  pre-eminence  as  an  orator  is  the 
more  marked  because  the  Germans,  as  a  race, 
are  not  remarkable  for  the  quality  of  their  im- 
promptu utterances.  The  language  is  a  reson- 
ant and  sonorous  one,  but  by  reason  of  its  in- 
volved construction,  is  more  adapted  to  the 
accurate  and  lucid  expression  of  the  written 
word  than  to  the  use  of  the  speaker  who  wishes 
to  sway  the  impulses  of  his  hearers  on  a  high 
plane  of  thought. 

The  real  value  of  the  Kaiser's  gift  of  speech 
has  been  well  summed  up  by  the  late  Emil 
Reich,  a  pronounced  German-hater,  in  Ger- 
many's Madness,  a  book  which  at  the  time 
of  its  publication  did  not  attract  one  fraction 
of  the  attention  it  deserved.     He  writes : — 

**The  Kaiser  is  a  born  orator.  He  speaks 
naturally  very  well,  and  even  the  style  of  his 
addresses,  delivered  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
is  quite  remarkable.  Whether  he  delivers  a  ser- 
mon on  board  ship,  as  he  has  frequently  done,  or 


38  The  Real  Kaiser 

whether  he  addresses  students  at  Bonn  Uni- 
versity, a  regiment,  labourers,  scientific  con- 
gresses, or  diplomatists,  he  invariably  succeeds 
in  giving  point  and  life  and  fine  shape  to  his 
ideas.  On  the  Continent  this  is  a  serious  power. 
To  underrate  it,  to  judge  it  from  the  British 
standpoint,  is  not  only  absurd,  but  also  quite  be- 
yond the  point. 

"A  man  who  can  talk  as  well  as  the  Kaiser 
would  be  a  prominent  man  in  Germany  under  all 
conditions;  but  that  such  great  oratory  should 
be  the  gift  of  a  person  who  happens  to  be  the 
German  Emperor,  that  is  a  fact  of  far-reaching 
importance  with  a  nation  with  whom  authority 
and  high-class  oratory  have  an  enormous  influ- 
ence." 

There  was  an  American  magnate  once  who 
when  his  word  was  doubted,  was  rightly  indig- 
nant at  an  unjust  accusation.  * '  Great  Scott ! ' ' 
he  cried, '  *  do  you  think  I  can 't  afford  to  pay  peo- 
ple to  do  my  lying?" 

We  know  that  the  Kaiser  pays  a  host  of  peo- 
ple to  do  his  lying,  but  we  have  curiously  re- 
fused to  accept  any  of  the  Kaiser's  speeches  at 
their  face  value.  Perhaps  a  lot  of  trouble  might 
have  been  saved  if  we  had  done  so.  Many  of 
them  are  brutally  frank  in  their  explicit  declara- 


The  Kaiser  as  Orator  39 

tion  of  the  ambitions  and  aims  of  the  German 
Emperor.  Most  of  them  could  have  been 
printed,  as  we  printed  the  speeches  of  our  own 
gTeat  men,  under  the  heading ' '  Grave  warning. ' ' 
We  insisted  on  laughing  at  them,  and  in  prov- 
ing that  they  meant  something  the  Kaiser  did 
not  say,  or  that  they  meant  nothing  at  all.  Yet 
there  is  little  the  Kaiser  has  said  that  will  con- 
vict him  of  wilfully  lying,  or  of  expressing  any- 
thing but  his  conviction  of  the  moment. 

This  has  surprised  the  Kaiser  himself. 

''You  English  are  mad,"  he  began,  in  the  fa- 
mous Daily  Telegraph  interview;  "mad  as 
March  hares.  What  has  come  over  you  that 
you  are  so  completely  given  over  to  suspicion 
quite  unworthy  of  a  great  nation?  Falsehood 
and  prevarication  are  alien  to  my  nature. ' ' 

In  analysing  his  speeches  to  see  whether  they 
truthfully  reflect  his  actions,  it  may  be  as  well 
to  begin  with  an  oft-repeated  sentiment,  the 
spirit  and  letter  of  which  he  has  broken.  ' '  I  am 
opposed  to  war;  but  war  can  only  be  avoided  by 
exerting  to  the  utmost  the  defensive  forces  of 
the  State." 

For  twenty-five  years  he  continued  to  enforce 
this  doctrine,  that  the  peace  of  Europe  was  in 
his  hands,  and  that  he  intended  to  maintain  it 


40  The  Real  Kaiser 

by  an  overwhelming  show  of  force.  For  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  he  adhered  to  that  promise; 
then  he  broke  it,  deliberately  and  by  a  prear- 
ranged plan.  The  circumstances  of  this  breach 
it  will  be  convenient  to  examine  elsewhere. 
The  reader  must  then  form  an  individual  opin- 
ion whether  he  was  throughout  only  a  peaceful 
bully,  or  a  lying  bully  who  was  biding  his  time 
for  a  display  of  violence. 

Otherwise,  his  speeches  have  afforded  a  re- 
liable key  to  his  actions.  He  said  he  would 
make  the  upkeep  of  the  Army  his  first  care ;  he 
has  done  so.  He  said  he  would  make  Germany 
first  at  sea  as  on  -land ;  if  certain  people  in  this 
country  had  had  their  own  way,  he  would  have 
done  that  by  this  time.  He  announced  his  in- 
tention of  occupying  the  position  to  which  he 
had  been  called  as  head  of  the  German  nation; 
he  Has  deprived  Germany  of  every  shred  of  con- 
stitutional government.  He  announced  his  con- 
viction that  Germany  was  entitled  not  only  to 
an  equal  place  with  other  great  nations,  but  to 
the  first  place  in  the  world.  He  based  the  claim 
on  Germany's  own  merit,  and  on  the  direct  in- 
terposition of  an  all-powerful  God.  He  has 
never  said  or  done  anything  to  show  that  he  was 
not  sincere  in  that  conviction. 


The  Kaiser  as  Orator  41 

His  sincerity,  as  well  as  the  skill  with  which 
he  marshalls  words  and  phrases,  has  at  least 
carried  conviction  to  the  hearts  of  his  own  peo- 
ple. They  were  able  to  distinguish  between  his 
gefluegelte — random  remarks  about  trifles,  and 
the  great  principles  he  enunciated  with  so  much 
fire  and  eloquence.  To  have  stirred  in  the 
minds  of  such  a  race  the  faith  in  his  own  belief 
that  Germany  could  be  made  a  great  naval 
power  is  no  small  achievement.  To  have  helped 
by  his  speeches  to  call  into  being  a  Navy 
League  with  1,000,000  earnest  members  is  only 
one  part  of  the  Kaiser's  work  as  an  orator.  He 
did  more;  by  his  speeches  he  implanted  in  the 
German  mind  the  notion  of  world  power  as  none 
of  the  many  writers  and  speakers  on  the  topic 
were  able  to  do. 

British  people  only  saw  the  incongruity  of  this 
spectacle  of  an  Emperor  continually  ''on  the 
stump ' ' ;  they  overlooked  the  very  potent  effect 
of  this  endless  stream  of  Imperial  oratory. 

And  the  Kaiser  had  the  art  of  imparting  sig- 
nificance and  grandeur  to  the  most  commonplace 
occasion.  Any  one  who  has  been  present  at  the 
christening  of  a  ship  will  know  that  the  cere- 
mony itself  is  a  mere  piece  of  bathos.  The 
breaking  of  a  bottle  of  wine  and  the  utterance  of 


42  The  Real  Kaiser 

a  few  words  seem  paltry  when  one  sees  what 
comes  after;  the  rush  of  the  new  keel  down  the 
slips  into  its  element.  That  sight  always 
dwarfs  the  trifling  ceremony  that  precedes  it. 

But  the  Kaiser  knew  how  to  christen  a  ship 
Imperially.     Hear  him  speak : — 

'^  Springing  from  the  old  German  sagas  are 
the  names  of  ships  of  thy  class.  Therefore 
shalt  thou  likewise  recall  to  us  the  grey  past  of 
our  ancestors  and  the  puissant  deity  whom  our 
German  forefathers  in  their  ignorance  suppli- 
cated and  worshipped,  when  the  battles  of  the 
North  were  fought  on  the  Polar  Seas,  and  death 
and  ruin  were*  carried  into  the  land  of  the 
enemy.  The  potent  name  of  this  great  deity 
shalt  thou  bear.  I  christen  thee  with  the  name 
of  Aegir." 

Or  he  lifts  his  voice  in  praise  of  the  dignity  of 
motherhood : — 

"I  am  thinking  now  of  German  women  and 
maids.  When  I  was  on  the  battlefield  at  Vion- 
ville,  I  thought  of  how  nobly  they  gave  their 
sons,  their  husbands  and  their  lovers  to  assist  in 
the  work  of  regaining  for  us  the  Empire.  It  is 
incumbent  on  them  to  bring  up  a  new  generation 
of  vigorous  men.     In  the  mother,  our  good  Ger- 


The  Kaiser  as  Orator  43 

man  woman,  lies  a  vast  reserve  of  Power  that 
none  can  overcome. ' ' 

Or  in  the  Ehineland : — 

"On  these  banks  of  the  Ehine,  that  river  of 
romance  so  familiar  in  our  history,  where  every 
mountain  has  its  story  and  every  House  of  God 
speaks  its  sublime  message,  every  note  of  wel- 
come and  every  cordial  word  must  exercise  a 
magic  spell  on  the  human  heart. ' ' 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  by  a  hundred  the 
instances  of  the  eloquence  of  this  Emperor,  who 
stood  before  his  people  and  entered  into  the 
heart  of  things,  catching  the  spell  of  the  mo- 
ment and  of  the  place  to  glorify  some  aspect  of 
German  life.  To  soldiers  he  could  speak  as  a 
soldier;  to  students  as  a  student;  and  even  to 
artists  he  could  talk  with  a  wisdom  and  shrewd- 
ness that  is  surprising,  in  view  of  his  pitiful 
performance  when  he  sought  to  give  practical 
expression  to  his  own  art  notions. 

Mr.  G.  K.  Chesterton  has  recently  recorded 
his  glee  at  the  discovery  made  by  him  on  con- 
sulting his  encyclopaedia,  that  the  Slavs  were 
originally  distinguished  by  name  from  the  Ger- 
mans because  of  an  essential  difference.  Orig- 
inally Slav  meant  "the  people  who  could  talk" 


44  The  Real  Kaiser 

as  distinct  from  the  ''Niemets,"  or  Germans,  to 
whom  self-expression  in  speech  was  impossible. 
Possibly  the  Kaiser  inherited  his  gift  of  elo- 
quence from  the  English  side  of  his  family ;  but 
it  seems  more  than  useless  to  contest  the  fact 
that  he  has  the  gift. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  KAISER  AS  BUSINESS  MAN 

"The  world  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  marches 
under  the  banner  of  commerce." — The  Kaiser's  telegram  to 
Dr.  Stephen,  Imperial  Postal  Secretary,  on  his  60th  Birth- 
day. 

"I  wish  Your  Majesty  were  an  Englishman,  for  I  could 
then  make  you  my  business  manager." — Cecil  Rhodes. 

"He  is  of  the  stuff  that  would  have  made  a  first-class 
American." — Some  modest  Yankee  scribe. 

The  German  Emperor  transacts  liis  business  in 
a  great  bare  room  at  Potsdam.  The  apartment 
is  familiar  to  many  German  men  of  business; 
indeed,  the  Kaiser's  accessibility  for  burghers 
was  at  one  time  a  bitter  grievance  to  the 
-Junkers,  who  never  ceased  to  sneer  at  his  fond- 
ness for  **Westphalian  nobodies."  More  re- 
cently, however,  they  have  made  a  grim  jest  of 
it,  and  the  apartment  goes  by  the  name  of  the 
''Spider's  Web." 

On  the  walls  are  hung  Spriiche — mottoes  in 
large  character  adorned  with  gilt  frames.  The 
Kaiser's  favourite  Spruch  writer  is  Ludwig 
Ganghofer,  a  sort  of  Bavarian  Samuel  Smiles. 

45 


46  The  Real  Kaiser 

He  bas  provided  Germany  with  the  breakfast 
cereals  of  its  literature,  the  hard,  gritty  nibs  of 
wisdom  which  have  become  popular,  largely 
through  the  admiration  of  the  Kaiser.  To- 
day, ''Be  strong  in  Pain"  and  "Be  satisfied 
with  the  day  as  it  comes,"  stare  from  many  a 
German  wall,  and  are  pointed  out  as  two  of  the 
Kaiser's  favourite  mottoes. 

At  one  time  the  Kaiser  regarded  his  collec- 
tion of  these  Spriiche  with  impartial  benevo- 
lence. It  is  significant  that  during  recent  years 
the  place  of  honour  opposite  the  Imperial  desk 
is  assigned  to  a  Spruch  which  reads,  "If  some- 
thing hurts  us  or  damages  us,  it  is  perhaps 
necessary  to  the  welfare  of  creation." 

In  this  room  the  Kaiser  takes  his  place  everj^ 
morning  at  seven,  and  for  an  hour  is  immersed 
in  his  daily  batch  of  Press  cuttings.  These 
excerpts  from  the  current  dailies,  weeklies  and 
monthlies  of  the  w^orld  take  a  wide  range,  and 
are  provided  by  a  staff  of  specialists  working 
on  an  elaborate  system.  They  cover  the  seven 
languages  the  Kaiser  has  mastered,  and  include 
translations  from  the  speech  of  other  countries 
as  well. 

Each  cutting  is  pasted  on  a  large  piece  of 
paper,  allowing  a  wide  margin  for  the  notes  and 


The  Kaiser  as  Business  Man         47 

instructions  which  are  scribbled  on  those  cut- 
tings thought  worthy  of  attention.  I  have  seen 
some  of  the  comparatively  unimportant  slips 
after  they  have  been  through  the  Kaiser's 
hands.  His  Majesty's  notes  remind  me  of  noth- 
ing so  much  as  daily  newspaper  copy;  full  of 
abbreviations,  and  scribbled  indifferently  in 
German  and  in  Roman  script,  both  sometimes 
occurring  in  the  same  sentence. 

The  daily  budget  of  cuttings  cover  a  wide 
range  of  subjects,  and  the  supervision  of  its 
preparation  is  a  matter  of  extreme  delicacy. 
The  Kaiser,  like  all  human  beings,  is  subject  to 
the  weakness  of  not  wishing  to  deal  with  un- 
pleasant things  at  the  moment  when  they  are 
brought  under  his  notice.  Yet,  when  he  dis- 
covers that  things  calculated  to  annoy  him  have 
been  kept  back,  his  brow  becomes  very  black, 
and  his  bulging  eyes  disf)lay  an  undue  propor- 
tion of  w^hite. 

Many  high  officials  have  failed  to  please  the 
Emperor  in  the  performance  of  the  task  of 
supervision  of  this  press-cutting  bureau.  In- 
cluded in  the  list  was  one  of  his  Chancellors. 
The  right  man  was  found  at  last  in  Doctor 
Hamann,  who  for  some  years  now  has  been  di- 
rector of  the  Press  Bureau  in  Wilhelmstrasse. 


48  The  Real  Kaiser 

To  Hamann  is  assigned  the  important  task  of 
preparing  matter  for  Press  consumption,  as  well 
as  the  making  ready  of  the  daily  Imperial 
dossier.  With  his  function  of  news  distributor 
it  will  be  convenient  to  deal  elsewhere.  I  men- 
tion it  here  to  point  out  that  it  has  served  him 
as  a  weapon  in  his  struggle  with  the  entourage 
of  the  Kaiser ;  and  enabled  him,  not  only  to  keep 
his  post,  but  to  increase  his  own  influence  and 
importance. 

Whatever  of  press  matter  Hamann  may  think 
it  necessary  to  smother,  in  the  interests  of  his 
Imperial  master,  it  is  very  certain  that  nothing 
is  kept  back  that  is  of  business  importance. 
With  the  Kaiser,  business  is  divided  under  two 
heads ;  the  business  affairs  of  the  German  Em- 
pire, and  the  matters  appertaining  to  his  per- 
sonal business  affairs. 

In  the  supervision  of  his  national  affairs,  as 
well  as  in  the  management  of  his  personal  af- 
airs,  the  Kaiser  has  long  been  proved  a  business 
man  of  the  highest  order.  One  hears  of  busi- 
ness men  who  always  keep  themselves  ac- 
quainted with  the  minutest  details  of  gigantic 
enterprises.  This,  of  course,  is  sheer  theatrical 
nonsense,  but  the  modern  business  man  has  his 
affairs  arranged  so  that  he  can  always  surprise 


The  Kaiser  as  Business  31  an         49 

every  department  by  a  quick  investigation  of  its 
affairs.  In  this  art  the  German  Emperor  is 
unsurpassed.  Nowhere  has  he  more  genuinely 
earned  his  title  of  William  the  Sudden  than  in 
his  business  office. 

The  matter  for  the  Imperial  news  dossier  is 
supplied  not  only  by  the  whole  continental 
Press,  but  also  by  the  whole  of  the  extremely  ef- 
ficient German  consular  service  abroad.  Fi- 
nance, trade,  invention,  shipping,  and  all  kindred 
topics  are  fully  covered,  and  at  the  service  of 
the  bureau  there  is  always  a  staff  of  experts 
who  can  supply  a  very  full  and  comprehensive 
report  to  the  Emperor  on  any  new  invention  or 
trade  development  which  may  have  attracted  his 
attention. 

To  the  Kaiser  is  largely  due  the  excellence  of 
the  German  consular  service,  and  the  German 
Consuls  abroad  are  unapproached,  surpassing 
even  the  capable  representatives  of  America. 
The  German  consul  is  for  ever  at  the  service  of 
his  country,  and  the  meanest  of  its  subjects  in 
foreign  lands.  He  is  a  highly  trained  com- 
mercial spy,  and,  as  recent  events  have  proved, 
does  not  always  confine  his  activities  to  com- 
mercial matters.  His  reports  are  models  of  ac- 
curacy and  thoroughness.     The  consular  serv- 


50  The  Real  Kaiser 

ice  has  for  twenty  years  been  maintained  at  this 
pitch  of  perfection  by  the  personal  supervision 
of  the  Emperor  himself. 

Here  lies  the  secret  of  the  adroit  manipula- 
tion of  German  capital  abroad.  Shipping  sub- 
sidies are  granted  at  the  just  moment,  and  full 
advantage  is  taken  of  the  consequent  spurt  in 
trade.  German  money  is  invested  or  with- 
drawn, always  with  a  calculated  effect.  To  this 
end  the  German  financial  system  is  admirably 
adapted. 

The  German  capitalistic  Syndicates  and 
Cartells  are  not  more  than  fifty  in  number,  and 
control  practically  the  whole  capital  of  the  Em- 
pire. The  interests  of  all  are  allied,  and  the 
Kaiser  is  in  the  closest  touch  with  the  men  who 
pull  the  strings.  Thus  banking,  shipping  and 
manufacturing  interests  are  closely  interwoven 
with  the  great  fabric  of  Empire,  and  the  Kaiser 
tightens  every  thread  by  means  of  his  influence 
with  great  manipulators  of  the  type  of  Herr 
Ballin. 

This  close  acquaintance  with  the  financiers 
of  the  Empire  is  still  bitterly  resented  by  the 
starving  aristocrats  who  swam  around  the 
Court.  But  it  has  enabled  the  Kaiser  to  extri- 
cate his  own  personal  affairs  from  the  hopeless 


The  Kaiser  as  Business  Man  51 

muddle  in  which  his  magnificence  and  impulsive- 
ness has  entangled  them. 

His  income  as  German  Emperor  is  only 
£130,000,  and  Prussia  has  had  to  pay  for  the 
honour  by  a  civil  list  of  £770,000,  recently  in- 
creased to  £900,000.  But  very  early  in  his  reign 
he  found  that  £1,000,000  a  year  was  not  ade- 
quate to  his  conception  of  the  magnificence  of 
Kaiserdom,  for  the  Kaiser  is  probably  the  wild- 
est spendthrift  that  ever  wore  a  crown. 

The  upkeep  of  his  fifty  castles  and  palaces  is 
a  legitimate  expense,  no  doubt,  but  he  has  never 
consented  to  a  modest  scale  of  expenditure  in 
connexion  with  any  of  them.  He  maintains  and 
manages  three  theatres;  the  Royal  Opera  and 
the  Eoyal  Theatre  in  Berlin,  and  the  Royal 
Theatre  at  Wiesbaden.  They  are  all  run  at  a 
heavy  loss.  His  Court  is  the  most  pompous 
and  costly  in  Europe.  The  multiplication  of 
functionaries  with  high-sounding  titles,  char- 
acteristic of  the  Courts  of  the  old  German 
Principalities,  is  exaggerated  in  the  Kaiser's 
personal  surroundings ;  and  in  his  case  they  are 
all  salaried  on  a  scale  which  is  princely,  accord- 
ing to  the  standard  of  German  officialdom.  The 
Minister  of  the  Imperial  House,  the  Director  of 
the   Imperial   House,   The   Director   of  Royal 


52  The  Real  Kaiser 

Archives,  the  President  of  Heraldry,  the  Court 
Marshall,  the  Master  of  the  Hunt,  the  Master  of 
the  Kitchen,  the  Master  of  the  Stables,  the 
Master  of  Ceremonies,  and  others  with  similar 
titles,  are  all  at  the  head  of  elaborate  and  costly 
departments  of  the  Kaiser's  Court.  The 
Kaiser  pays  for  all. 

He  has  also  to  provide  for  such  a  host  of  poor 
relatives  as  afflict  no  other  European  monarch. 
The  incomes  of  his  six  sons  are  all  paid  by  the 
Kaiser  himself,  and  as  they  have  grown  up  and 
married,  his  expense  from  this  source  alone  has 
been  a  very  heavy  one.  When  travelling 
abroad,  he  scatters  gifts  with  oriental  reckless- 
ness. After  his  Mediterranean  tour  there  was 
left  behind  him  a  trail  of  diamond  rings  and 
pins,  gold  watches  and  necklaces  with  which 
modern  times  provide  no  parallel. 

Then  his  pose  as  patron  of  the  arts  and  pro- 
fessions is  an  expensive  one.  He  is  always  dis- 
covering new  artists  and  sculptors  and  buying 
their  works  at  prices  far  above  their  market 
value.  His  art  collection  does  more  credit  to 
the  goodness  of  his  impulsive  nature  than  to 
the  excellence  of  his  judgment.  His  reward  has 
been  a  good  deal  of  ill-natured  criticism  from 
many  of  the  men  who  owe  their  success  in  life 


The  Kaiser  as  Business  Man  58 

to  the  very  lack  of  judgment  they  lampoon.  Let 
the  Kaiser  see  a  church  in  a  state  of  dilapida- 
tion, and  he  at  once  sets  about  restoring  it  from 
his  own  design.  Most  of  the  cost  usually  falls 
upon  the  Imperial  architect. 

Such  a  man  sees  a  chance  of  spending  money 
wherever  he  goes.  In  the  early  stages  of  his 
life  he  found  no  compensating  balance.  He  was 
continually  in  money  difficulties  of  the  most  em- 
barrassing description.  The  fact  peeped  out  in 
all  the  little  ill-judged  economies  that  mark  the 
constitutional  spendthrift.  He  was  mean  to  the 
verge  of  parsimony  in  domestic  affairs.  The 
little  Princess  did  not  like  the  buttons  on  her 
new  yachting  suit;  they  looked  common.  She 
wanted  to  replace  them  with  some  she  had  seen 
at  Wertheims,  at  a  shilling  apiece.  ''What!" 
cried  her  father.  ' '  A  shilling  each  for  buttons. 
Nonsense,  that  is  far  too  much."  So  the 
Princess  had  to  be  content  with  her  common 
buttons.  Continual^  he  complained  of  ex- 
penses that  the  ordinary  middle-class  man  ac- 
cepts as  inevitable;  it  was  the  Kaiser's  way  of 
economising. 

But  his  close  intimacy  with  the  leaders  of  Ger- 
man finance  has  enabled  him  to  apply  his  great 
business  ability  to  the  very  profitable  develop- 


54  The  Real  Kaiser 

ment  of  his  private  resources.  These  were  very 
considerable  at  the  outset.  The  Kaiser  is  the 
largest  landowner  of  Prussia.  His  estates  are 
250,000  acres  in  extent  and  eighty-three  in  num- 
ber. He  owns  much  of  the  best  agricultural 
land  in  Germany,  and  valuable  mineral  tracts 
as  well. 

His  early  management  of  these  lands  was 
royal.  The  workers  are  still  the  best-paid  of 
their  class  in  Germany,  and  the  old-age  pen- 
sions and  allowances  for  widows  come  from  the 
Imperial  purse.  But  soon  the  Kaiser's  estates 
began  to  develop  on  very  shrewd  business  lines. 
An  instance  in  point  is  the  growth  of  the  Im- 
perial stud  for  breeding  race-horses,  established 
under  the  guidance  of  Count  Lehndorf.  The 
Kaiser's  primary  object  was  the  improvement 
of  the  German  troop-horse,  an  object  which  has 
been  achieved,  as  we  learned  in  the  year  1914. 
But  the  initial  expense  was  enormous,  and  the 
means  of  recouping  it  was  skilfully  devised,  an 
object  lesson  being  taken  from  France  and 
Great  Britain. 

Graditz,  and  the  other  Imperial  studs,  are 
fine  business  speculations,  because  modern  Ger- 
many has  been  equipped  with  race-courses,  such 
as  Griinewald,  where  the  Berliner  can  spend  his 


The  Kaiser  as  Business  Man  55 

holiday  making  acquaintance  with  the  fascina- 
tion of  the  Pari-mutuel.  The  writer  has  seen 
crowds  at  these  modern  race-courses,  Carlshorst 
and  Griinewald  especially,  equal  to  that  at  Ep- 
som on  Derby  Day.  For  cheapness  and  con- 
venience they  stand  unrivalled,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence the  Berliner  of  the  twentieth  century 
has  developed  a  passion  for  betting  equal  to 
that  of  the  Parisian.  A  goodly  share  of  the 
prize  money  falls  to  the  Imperial  stud,  and  the 
price  of  bloodstock  in  Germany  has  been  en- 
hanced enormously. 

'  A  better  example  of  the  Kaiser's  business 
ability  is  shown  in  the  development  of  the  pot- 
tery factory  attached  to  his  Cadinen  estate. 
The  Majolica  ware,  which  is  the  special  product 
of  this  factory,  has  become  a  ver^^  familiar  ob- 
ject in  modern  Germany,  especially  since  the 
opening  of  a  large  shop  in  Leipziger  Strasse,  in 
Berlin,  under  the  title  of  the  Hohenzollern  In- 
dustrial Art  Store. 

One  very  clever  woman  in  the  business  set  was 
able  to  secure  a  very  early  example  of  this  ware, 
and  displayed  it,  not  too  prominently,  in  her  re- 
ception-room where  the  honour  of  a  visit  from 
Majesty  was  to  be  accorded.  The  Kaiser's  rov- 
ing eye  lit  on  it  immediately  upon  his  entrance. 


56  The  Real  Kaiser 

His  delight  was  frank  and  unconcealed.  "Ha, 
ha,"  he  shouted,  "the  tradesman  calls  on  his 
patrons.  Good!  And  what  is  the  next  arti- 
cle?" 

The  opening  of  the  art  store  was  a  huge  suc- 
cess. Kempinsky,  keeper  of  the  huge  restau- 
rants where  thousands  of  Berliners  lunch  and 
dine  with  a  comforting  sense  of  bigness,  both 
of  apartments  and  meals,  redecorated  his  es- 
tablishments entirely  with  the  Cadinen  Majolica. 
The  Imperial  Bank  of  Leipsic  had  a  whole  ceil- 
ing made  of  the  ware.  But  the  popular  line  of 
the  store  was  the  porcelain  bust  of  the  Kaiser, 
made  from  a  design  by  the  Imperial  owner  of 
the  shop,  and  pr6duced  at  a  price  within  the 
means  of  modest  purses.  The  writer  has  be- 
come unpleasantly  familiar  with  that  porcelain 
bust  during  the  last  two  years,  and  personally 
would  not  give  the  guinea  which  is  demanded 
for  the  standard  size.  But  it  is  good  business, 
and  the  Kaiser  is  not  ashamed  of  it. 

Let  it  be  said  that  he  displays  an  equal  readi- 
ness to  act  as  commercial  agent  for  the  national 
goods.  In  fact  he  succeeded  in  shocking  Ad- 
miral Grigorovitch,  an  aristocratic  Russian 
sailor  and  one  of  the  least  business-like  men  in 
the  world.     At  a  Kiel  naval  review,  a  German 


The  Kaiser  as  Business  Man  57 

cruiser  of  the  latest  type  had  come  under  no- 
tice, when  the  Kaiser  turned  to  the  Admiral. 
"In  our  yards,"  he  said,  *'we  can  turn  out  six 
of  those  in  the  shortest  possible  time,  if  the 
order  is  promptly  given.  And  they  are  the  very 
type  that  Eussia  wants."  The  remark  was 
made  in  the  hearing  of  several  representatives 
of  foreign  powers,  and  in  the  silence  which  fol- 
lowed the  Kaiser  was  the  only  unembarrassed 
person. 

From  time  to  time  little  indications  are  given 
of  the  Kaiser's  widespread  business  interests 
which  annoy  the  aristocrats  as  much  as  they 
amuse  the  burghers.  For  instance,  it  was  found 
that  he  has  six  shares  in  a  Hamburg  brewery 
which  yield  him  an  income  of  £200  a  year.  He 
has  probably  much  bigger  brewing  interests 
than  that,  for  his  great  crony  Prince  Fuersten- 
burg,  the  leading  capitalist  of  Germany,  is  one 
of  its  first  brewers. 

The  late  Carl  Hagenbeck  told  me  of  an  inter- 
esting business  talk  he  had  with  the  Kaiser, 
who  owns  good  land  in  German  South-west  Af- 
rica which  he  originally  equipped  as  a  sheep 
farm.  He  consulted  Hagenbeck  on  the  possi- 
bility of  ostrich  farming  on  this  land,  and,  as  a 
result  of  the  interview,  the  zoo  expert  was  com- 


58  The  Real  Kaiser 

missioned  to  stock  a  large  ostrich  farm  for  the 
Emperor.  The  outlay,  according  to  Hagenbeck, 
is  likely  to  be  a  very  profitable  one. 

In  Brazil,  too,  the  Kaiser  has  interests  which 
are  imperilled  by  the  acute  crisis  through  which 
the  finance  of  that  country  is  now  passing.  The 
capital,  however,  has  been  so  shrewdly  placed 
that  it  is  likely  to  represent  a  huge  fortune  at 
no  distant  date.  Security  is  a  more  marked 
feature  of  his  speculations  in  California,  and  the 
sum  at  stake  is  not  so  great.  His  most  recent 
field  of  financial  enterprise  is  the  Canadian 
State  of  British  Columbia,  and  it  is  likely  that 
more  will  be  heard  of  this  very  soon.  His  in- 
terests there  are  not  on  the  gigantic  scale  that 
rumour  has  credited  them  with  being,  but  they 
are  very  substantial.  Should  the  Canadian 
Government  take  the  matter  in  hand,  they  will 
have  no  difficulty  in  tracing  the  transaction,  if 
not  to  the  Kaiser,  at  least  very  near  to  Potsdam. 

Herr  Martin,  the  most  renowned  of  German 
financial  writers,  in  an  article  published  in  the 
National  Zeitwig  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1914,  placed  the  Kaiser  as  the  wealthiest  per- 
sonage in  Germany.  He  estimated  his  fortune 
at  £20,000,000 ;  the  greater  part  of  which  wealth 
has  been  created  by  the  Kaiser's  own  exertions. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  KAISER  AT  HOME 

Kinde,     Kuehe,     Kleider,     Kirche — und     Kaiser. — The 
Kaiser's  motto  for  women. 

Oh,  wisely  has  the  Kaiser  said 
Four  C's  should  rule  in  housewife's  head. 
A  Child  to  love,  a  Church  for  prayer, 
Pair  Cook,  and  Clothes  in  good  repair. 

No  Child;  then  life  is  dull  and  long. 
No  Church;  then  everything  goes  wrong. 
No  Cook;  and  this  the  husband  loathes. 
No  taste;  who  likes  untidy  clothes? 

Percy  Fitzgerald. 

'*I  SHALL  have  a  soreness  in  the  heart  until  I 
see  the  wife  and  youngsters,"  said  the  Kaiser 
to  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  when  the  last  cere- 
mony in  connexion  with  the  Palestine  journey 
had  been  concluded. 

Like  most  of  the  Kaiser's  utterances,  that  was 
a  very  genuine  expression  of  his  sentiment  of 
the  moment.  Unlike  very  many  of  his  sayings, 
it  represented  a  very  consistent  attitude  of  the 
Emperor  throughout  his  whole  life.  In  all  the 
controversy  that  has  raged  around  him,  and 
through  all  the  criticism  that  has  been  showered 

59 


60  The  Real  Kaiser 

upon  him,  no  serious  doubt  lias  ever  been  cast 
upon  the  happiness  and  wholesomeness  of  his 
home  life. 

There  can  be  no  secrets  here,  no  possibility  of 
misunderstanding.  The  everyday  existence  of 
the  Kaiser,  the  Kaiserin,  and  the  members  of 
their  family  comes  under  the  purview  of  so 
many  eyes  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  hide 
away  any  skeleton  in  a  cupboard.  In  our  own 
homely  English  phrase,  the  Kaiser  has  been 
proved  ''a  good  husband  and  a  good  father," 
a  man  who  is  never  so  happy  as  when  he  can 
renew  the  domestic  ties  which  shackle  him  so 
pleasantly. 

In  the  eyes  of  ev^ery  German  the  Kaiser  has 
done  his  first  duty  as  a  German  and  a  monarch ; 
he  has  given  his  country  six  stalwart  sons.  He 
has  brought  them  up  in  the  German  tradition 
of  stern  duty  and  iron  discipline.  Some  of  them 
have  married — early,  as  becomes  Hohenzollern 
princes — and  have  maintained  the  German  repu- 
tation for  fruitfulness.  His  daughter,  the  fam- 
ily favourite,  has  married  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, and  has  fulfilled  the  people 's  hope  by  heal- 
ing a  long-maintained  breach  in  the  walls  of 
the  Empire. 

The  Kaiserin  is  a  consort  of  the  old-fashioned 


The  Kaiser  at  Home  61 

German  school.  "No  English  nonsense  about 
her, ' '  say  the  worthy  burghers,  still  mindful  of 
the  forceful  woman  whose  life  was  made  so  un- 
happy by  running  counter  to  German  tastes 
and  German  prejudices.  A  pleasant  bright- 
faced  lady,  with  an  abundance  of  beautiful 
snowy-white  hair,  she  has  never  lost  the  hold 
she  early  gained  on  the  hearts  of  her  people. 
She  lives  strictly,  according  to  the  motto  laid 
down  by  the  Kaiser  himself.  Her  life  is  de- 
voted to  children,  household  duties,  Church, 
clothes,  and  the  Kaiser. 

'  Each  evening  she  receives  from  an  aide  the 
programme  of  the  Kaiser's  arrangements  for 
the  following  day,  and  her  own  time-table  is  de- 
vised to  fit  in  with  that  programme.  For  a  day 
is  lost  to  the  Kaiser  if  he  does  not  spend  some 
part  of  it  in  close  intercourse  with  the  wife  he 
loves  so  well.  Into  the  intimate  circle  of  his 
private  life  the  Kaiser  has  also  taken  the  Crown 
Princess,  the  beautiful  girl  who  won  much  of 
his  popularity  for  the  heir  to  the  throne.  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  Kaiser  that  in  the  breach 
which  has  occurred  between  himself  and  his 
headstrong  heir,  there  has  been  no  cessation  of 
the  very  fatherly  and  friendly  regard  he  has 
always  displayed  to  his  daughter-in-law. 


62  The  Real  Kaiser 

The  Kaiser 's  day  begins  at  six,  an  invariable 
rule  except  wben  he  is  travelling,  when  he  allows 
himself  and  his  staff  an  extra  hour  of  repose. 
Much  work  is  done  before  breakfast,  a  family 
meal  with  no  Court  ceremony.  Official  duties 
begin  afterwards,  and  are  accompanied  by  much 
ceremony,  for  the  pomp  of  the  Kaiser's  Court 
exceeds  that  of  any  other  in  the  world,  not  even 
excepting  that  of  the  Czar. 

At  the  Kaiser's  favourite  evening  supper  of 
cold  meat  and  beer  the  chance  comes  again  to 
throw  off  the  ties  of  formality,  and  the  Imperial 
family  reverts  to  the  pleasant  homely  inter- 
course that  is  characteristic  of  an  ordinary  mid- 
dle-class family  in 'Germany.  A  few  intimates 
may  be  entertained,  and  the  Kaiser  often  takes 
part  in  a  game  of  cards.  He  favours  the  essen- 
tially German  game  of  skat,  and  will  only  hear 
of  the  smallest  stakes.  Even  then  he  is  a  bad 
loser,  and  more  awkward  still,  is  very  quick  to 
notice  and  rebuke  the  player  who  attempts  to 
save  an  unpleasant  situation  by  allowing  him  to 
win. 

The  Kaiser  boasts  a  good  hearty  appetite,  but 
drinks  in  strict  moderation.  He  is  particularly 
fond  of  Hamburg  steak,  which  is  meat  chopped 
fine  with  onions,  and  fried,  and  consumes  his 


The  Kaiser  at  Home  63 

German  average  of  sausage.  Roast  goose  al- 
ways tempts  him,  and  invariably  makes  him 
bilious  and  ill-tempered ;  so  Herr  Carl  Jaedicke, 
formerly  his  head  cook,  but  now  unfortunately 
no  more,  would  never  serve  that  dish.  For  this 
Herr  Jaedicke  was  sometimes  most  unjustly 
blamed  by  his  Imperial  master. 

Herr  Jaedicke  was  the  successor  of  a  long 
line  of  German  cooks  who  styled  themselves 
Chef,  and  served  the  Imperial  family  with  dishes 
which  were  fondly  believed  by  some  of  its  mem- 
bers to  be  samples  of  French  cookery.  But 
not  by  the  Kaiser,  who  knew  a  good  deal  better. 
So  one  day  he  determined  to  put  in  a  real  Ger- 
man cook,  who  would  supply  honest  German 
food.  Herr  Jaedicke  was  chosen,  and  proved  a 
real  find. 

He  would  not  be  called  Chef,  but  fell  back  on 
the  German  title  of  Mundkoch.  He  changed 
the  Imperial  Menu  to  a  Speisekarte,  and  then, 
with  the  collaboration  of  the  Kaiser  himself, 
set  out  to  find  German  equivalents  to  all  the 
great  cosmopolitan  French  titles  for  standing 
dishes.  He  was  grieved,  this  excellent  Herr 
Jaedicke,  when  his  Imperial  master  suddenly 
lost  interest  in  the  pastime.  The  game  stopped 
at  the  letter  M,  word  Mayonnaise,  to  which  no 


64  The  Real  Kaiser 

real  German  equivalent  could  be  found,  though 
Herr  Jaedicke  believed  to  have  solved  the  prob- 
lem, coining  the  ingenious  variant  of  Meion- 
neise.  Apparently  the  Kaiser  did  not  agree 
with  him. 

A  part,  not  showy  but  indispensable,  is  also 
played  in  the  Kaiser's  home  life  by  the  ver- 
satile Herr  Haby,  Hof  Friseur  and  inventor  of 
the  Kaiser  moustache.  Herr  Haby  is  not  un- 
known in  England ;  a  tall  man  of  military  mien 
who  sports  a  moustache  so  aggressive  that  the 
small  boys  of  Windsor  took  him  for  Majesty 
himself,  and  cheered  him  whenever  he  ventured 
into  the  street. 

Herr  Haby  ''fixed"  his  master's  moustache 
by  the  invention  of  a  toilet  water  of  surpassing 
worth,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  "Es  ist 
erreicht,"  which  corresponds,  he  said,  to  our 
English  word  Eureka.  It  was  an  American 
who  reminded  Herr  Haby  that  Eureka  was  not 
originally  an  English  word,  and  suggested  ' '  The 
Limit"  as  nearly  a  literal  rendering  of  his  in- 
spiration. This,  however,  was  rejected  by  the 
inventor. 

"Es  ist  erreicht"  is  reserved  by  the  inventor 
for  the  sole  use  of  Majesty  himself,  and  he  was 
consequently  called  upon  to  provide  an  equiva- 


The  Kaiser  at  Home  65 

lent  for  the  use  of  20,000,000  loyal  Germans, 
who  also  wished  their  moustaches  to  point  sky- 
wards. Hence  the  Schnurrbartbinde,  also  Herr 
Haby's  invention,  and  a  ver^^  profitable  one. 
It  is  a  strip  of  canvas,  which  is  worn  across  the 
upper  lip  at  night  after  the  moustache  has  been 
well  moistened,  and  gives  the  user  a  very  mina- 
tory air.  From  this  device  the  inventor  derived 
a  substantial  fortune,  until  the  Kaiser  lowered 
the  points  of  his  moustache  and  ruined  his 
friseur's  business. 

Herr  Haby  has  yet  another  claim  to  fame,  for 
it  was  he  who  devised  the  soapless  shave,  con- 
sequent upon  a  remark  of  the  Kaiser  that  much 
time  was  wasted  in  lathering.  Two  days  later 
this  gem  of  a  Hof  Friseur  was  able  to  announce 
that  the  wastage  had  been  permanently 
checked,  and  the  Kaiser  for  many  years  has 
not  been  submitted  to  the  indignity  of  soaping. 

As  the  Kaiser's  boys  grew  up,  they  were  sent 
away  to  be  educated  at  Ploen,  where  a  strict 
hand  was  kept  upon  them.  They  were  also  sub- 
ject to  careful  supervision  when  at  home  on 
holiday,  but  the  hand  laid  on  them  was  always 
a  kindly  and  just  one.  "My  young  ones,"  as 
the  Kaiser  always  called  them,  had  a  better  time 
than   most   German  boys    of   their   age.     The 


66  The  Real  Kaiser 

Crown  Prince  proved  a  spirited  youth,  with 
strong  sporting  proclivities.  He  rode  in  a 
steeplechase  at  Karlshorst,  and  won  a  dashing 
race  and  a  stern  rebuke  afterwards.  A  Crown 
Prince  is  not  intended  to  end  his  life  in  a  ditch. 
He  has  other  duties. 

One  sees  the  common  sense  and  justice  of  it 
all,  and  must  honour  the  Kaiser  for  reproducing 
in  his  home  all  the  best  features  of  the  ordinary 
life  of  the  German  citizen. 

For  the  Empress  he  has  never  failed  to  show 
the  courteous  consideration  which  might  be  ex- 
pected from  his  public  eulogies  of  his  Consort. 
And  these  have  been  many,  and  very  handsome. 
"The  link  which  .unites  me  to  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein,  and  which  makes  this  state  dearer  to  me 
than  any  other,  is  the  gem  which  sparkles  by 
TL\y  side.  Her  Majesty  the  Empress,  a  daughter 
of  this  province,  a  model  of  all  the  virtues  that 
adorn  a  German  princess." 

And  again, '  *  Our  wives  can  learn  from  Queen 
Louise  that  the  principal  task  of  a  woman  does 
not  lie  in  the  domain  of  political  meetings  and 
propaganda,  but  in  the  quiet  duties  of  the  hearth 
and  of  the  family. ' ' 

Obedient  to  his  slightest  wish,  even  to  dis- 
pensing with  the  jewels  which  every  German 


Tlie  Kaiser  at  Home  67 

woman  loves,  the  Empress  was  adamant  on  one 
point.  She  flatly  refused  to  wear  any  dresses 
that  were  not  made  in  Germany,  and  emphasised 
to  the  ladies  of  the  Court  her  opinion  that,  if 
they  chose,  they  could  find  in  Berlin  raiment 
far  more  becoming  and  tasteful  than  in  Paris. 
This  led  to  the  Kaiser  practising  an  innocent 
deception,  in  which  he  made  the  Crown  Princess 
his  partner. 

Princess  Cecilie  has  always  been  the  most 
tastefully  dressed  lady  at  the  German  Court, 
owing  to  her  unswerving  adherence  to  the 
Parisian  modistes.  Distressed  by  some  un- 
usually crude  specimen  of  the  Berlin  modes,  the 
Kaiser  asked  the  Princess  if  the  Kaiserin  could 
not  be  fitted  with  a  French  gown  without  being 
aware  of  the  fact.  The  Princess  declared  it  was 
quite  easy,  and  entering  into  the  spirit  of  the 
thing,  obtained  one  of  ''Mamma's"  best  fitting 
dresses  as  a  model. 

In  due  course  the  Kaiser  explained  to  the 
Kaiserin  that  he  wished  to  present  her  with  a 
dress  of  his  own  selection,  a  wish  which  occa- 
sioned the  Empress  no  surprise.  He  also  hoped 
that  she  would  wear  it  at  the  gala  performance 
at  the  opera  that  evening,  and  this  was  done. 
All  her  intimates  pressed  round  the  Empress, 


68  The  Real  Kaiser 

complimenting  her  after  the  German  fashion  on 
her  very  charming  gown,  to  her  intense  satis- 
faction. 

'■ '  Have  I  not  always  told  you  that  the  prettiest 
dresses  of  all  are  to  be  obtained  in  Berlin,  if 
they  are  only  chosen  with  discretion,"  she  tri- 
umphantly repeated. 

The  Kaiser  and  Kaiserin  are  never  happier 
than  when  they  are  able  to  leave  Berlin  for  a 
vacation  at  one  of  the  Kaiser's  estates  in  the 
country.  Here  the  Kaiser  plays  the  part  of 
British  Squire  with  great  gusto.  He  tramps 
about  the  country-side  arrayed  in  Harris  tweed 
and  gaiters,  with  a  big  Dutch  pipe  full  of  coarse 
tobacco  in  his  mouth,  and  a  green  Tyrolese  hat 
on  his  head.  He  likes  to  catch  his  men  in  the 
early  morning,  as  they  begin  their  work. 

''Morgen  Kinder"  or  ''Morgen  Arbeiter"  is 
his  greeting,  and  they  dutifully  return  him  a 
respectful  ^'Morgen  Majestat,"  as  they  get 
ready  to  reply  to  his  hundred  and  one  ques- 
tions, the  answers  to  which  he  never  appears 
to  hear.  He  is  all  for  big  things  on  his  farms ; 
giant  rye  to  astonish  the  natives,  and  swollen 
stangelspargel  (asparagus).  He  is  reputed  a 
good  judge  of  stock,  but  rather  too  impatient 
to  make  a  successful  orchardist. 


Tlie  Kaiser  at  Home  69 

Plenty  of  solid  food  and  beer  are  consumed 
by  him  when  in  the  country,  and  in  the  evening 
an  abundance  of  a  brew  of  lemonade,  cunningly 
compounded  by  the  Empress  from  orange  and 
lemon  juice,  and  a  local  mineral  water.  Long 
homely  evenings  with  plenty  of  talk  and  simple 
games  are  the  rule.  It  was  at  one  of  his  coun- 
try estates  that  the  Kaiser  produced  a  parcel, 
announcing  that  it  was  "a  present  from  Uncle 
Edward."  This  proved  to  be  the  game  of 
Ping-pong,  then  at  the  zenith  of  its  popularity. 
Into  this  game  he  threw  himself  with  all  his 
heart  and  soul,  but  like  most  devotees  of  the 
amusement,  tired  of  it  very  rapidly. 

His  library  is  a  small  one,  for  he  depends 
upon  his  press  cuttings  for  information  and 
reading  matter.  About  six  thousand  volumes 
comprise  the  Kaiser's  w^hole  stock  of  books, 
and  these  are  mainly  works  of  reference,  mili- 
tary tactics,  and  theology.  When  Colonel 
Roosevelt  visited  him,  he  was  presented  by  the 
Kaiser  with  a  number  of  books,  one  half  of 
which  were  theological  works;  while  most  of 
the  others  were  books  on  military  matters;  a 
sure  index  to  the  Emperor's  tastes. 

It  is  noticed  by  those  around  him  that,  since 
his  sons  have  arrived  at  maturity,  and  more 


70  The  Real  Kaiser 

especially  since  tlie  Princess  Victoria  Louise 
married,  the  Kaiser  has  become  a  much  less  hu- 
man man.  Not  even  the  society  of  his  consort 
suffices  to  compensate  him  for  the  ''young 
ones,"  whose  adolescence  has  deprived  him  of 
what  was  one  of  the  main  pleasures  of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  KAISER'S  LIGHTER  MOMENTS 

"The  Kaiser  has  a  keen  sense  of  humour." — Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie. 

I  ONCE  had  the  opportunity  of  watching  a  splen- 
did Court  function,  attended  both  by  the  Kaiser 
and  King  Edward  VII.  Both  monarchs  were 
the  centre  of  groups,  composed  of  pretty  women 
and  distinguished  men,  and  in  both  groups  the 
conversation  appeared  to  be  spirited  and  amus- 
ing. It  was  noticeable  that  from  the  group 
around  the  Kaiser  laughter  followed  the  Em- 
peror's words,  and  that  the  leader  in  the  laugh- 
ter was  the  Kaiser  himself.  At  times  he  was 
almost  boisterous. 

There  were  ripples  of  amusement  from  the 
surrounding  of  King  Edward  too,  and  these 
frequently  followed  some  remark  made  by  His 
Majesty.  But,  though  obviously  entertained, 
the  English  King  was  not  moved  to  open  mirth. 
His  smiles  were  reserved  for  the  remarks  ad- 
dressed to  him.  He  did  not  appear  to  lead  the 
conversation  so  much  as  to  take  an  occasional 

71 


72  The  Beat  Kaiser 

and  very  effective  part  in  it.  That  was  an  im- 
pression gathered  at  a  distance. 

The  Kaiser  reserves  his  lighter  moments  for 
his  visits  to  foreign  countries,  and  for  occa- 
sions when  he  is  free  among  his  intimates.  On 
his  yacht  at  Kiel,  or  when  squiring  at  Cadinen, 
he  lets  himself  go.  Then  his  noisy  hilarity  is 
unbounded;  and  to  these  occasions  he  owes  the 
reputation  of  being  the  most  jovial  monarch  of 
Christendom. 

He  is  also  merry  in  the  company  of  the  ar- 
tistic set  whose  patron  he  likes  to  be,  and  here 
has  earned  the  reputation  of  having  keen  sense 
of  humour.  That_reputation  he  is  careful  shall 
not  pursue  him  among  the  business  people  he 
meets,  or  among  the  middle  class  professionals, 
who  utterly  fail  to  understand  it.  With  them 
he  is  always  grave,  and  austere  to  the  verge  of 
gloom. 

I  once  complained  to  a  German  friend,  a  man- 
ufacturer, that  he  had  no  sense  of  humour.  His 
reply  to  an  accusation  that  would  have  annoyed 
any  Englishman  or  American  deprived  me  of 
the  power  of  further  speech.  ''Why  should  I 
have?"  he  asked  simply. 

In  any  case,  the  German  idea  of  humour  is 


The  Kaiser's  Lighter  Moments        73 

widely  different  from  our  own.  A  comparison 
of  Simplicissimus  and  Punch  will  serve  to  mark 
the  contrast.  The  German  paper  is  often  gross, 
and  nearly  always  cruel;  most  effectively  cruel 
on  occasion.  Punch  is  never  either  gross  or 
cruel,  even  if  it  lacks  the  element  of  surprise 
which  distinguishes  the  very  funny  American 
humourists. 

The  Kaiser  is  known  to  be  a  connoisseur  in 
that  class  of  story  which  in  this  country  is  re- 
served for  the  smoking-room.  He  is  also  con- 
victed of  being  the  most  inveterate  royal  prac- 
tical joker  on  record  since  the  time  of  Nero. 

But  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  a  really 
fine  sense  of  humour  would  prevent  his  finding 
his  most  exquisite  amusement  in  placing  his 
worthy  friends  and  servants  in  absurd  and  pain- 
ful positions,  which  his  exalted  rank  renders 
them  incapable  of  resenting.  True  humour  is 
closely  allied  to  sensibility,  and  consideration 
for  the  feelings  of  others. 

On  the  imperial  yacht  Hohenzollern  there  is 
but  one  caricature,  though  it  has  been  said  that 
the  Kaiser  is  so  amused  by  caricatures  of  him- 
self that  he  has  made  a  large  collection  of  them. 
The  drawing  in  question  represents  ''Swedish 


74  The  Real  Kaiser 

Drill  at  Sea, ' '  and  shows  a  slim  Kaiser  leading 
a  squad  of  fat  courtiers  and  generals  at  early- 
morning  exercise. 

Indeed  this  is  the  choicest  jest  the  Imperial 
mind  ever  devised.  During  the  famous  Medi- 
terranean trip  it  was  an  every  morning  occur- 
rence on  deck ;  a  band  of  puffy  Geheimrate  and 
obese  generals  lined  up,  the  Kaiser  at  the  head, 
and  ordered  by  a  stern  instructor  to  ''give  the 
right  fashion  to  their  bones."  The  grinning 
spectators  usually  included  a  section  of  the 
crew,  and  the  Imperial  jester  never  tired  of  the 
joke. 

Funnier  still  was  the  outcome  of  one  of  his 
best  jokes. 

The  intended  victim  was  a  blunt  old  admiral, 
renowned  for  his  outspoken  comment  and  his 
Gargantuan  appetite.  This  old  sea-dog  was 
placed  next  the  Kaiser  at  ynittagessen,  after  a 
long  morning  in  the  sharp  air.  His  favourite 
dish  of  boiled  beef  and  vegetables  was  served, 
and  after  h^  had  heaped  a  large  plate,  the  Kaiser 
began  to  ply  him  with  sharp  questions.  Tempt- 
ing mouthfuls  were  impaled  on  his  fork,  but 
never  reached  his  mouth.  Soon  he  was  talk- 
ing with  the  bitter  emphasis  that  had  made 
him  celebrated,  and  everybody  else  was  quietly 


The  Kaiser's  Lighter  Moments        75 

eating.  In  the  middle  of  Ms  remarks,  a  lackey 
came  to  remove  his  full  plate.  "Leave  it," 
roared  the  hungry  sailor,  at  the  same  time  trans- 
fixing the  servant's  hand  with  the  prongs  of 
his  fork.  Then  Majesty  realised  that  his  jest 
had  turned  out  even  better  than  he  expected, 
and  his  loud  Ha!  ha!  led  the  chorus  of  laugh- 
ter. 

Sir  Frank  Lascelles,  a  former  British  Am- 
bassador to  Berlin,  has  recorded  another  typical 
instance  of  Imperial  humour.  The  joke  con- 
sisted in  penetrating  to  the  Ambassador's  bed- 
rpom  while  that  Minister  was  still  in  bed,  and 
sitting  on  the  bedside  and  conversing  for  twenty 
minutes.  When  the  Kaiser  prepared  to  leave, 
it  became  necessary  for  our  representative  to 
rise  and  accompany  him  to  the  door,  clad  only 
in  a  pyjama  suit.  The  Kaiser  flung  the  door 
wide  open,  roaring  "Here's  a  sight"  to  the 
waiting  adjutant,  a  German  colonel,  who  was 
naturally  convulsed  at  his  master's  humour. 

The  Kaiser's  love  for  making  others  uncom- 
fortable has  been  turned  to  shrewd  use  by  some 
of  those  with  whom  he  condescends  to  famil- 
iarity, as,  for  instance,  that  smart  little  Jew, 
Herr  Alfred  Ballin.  "Your  Majesty,"  he  said, 
when  rung  up  one  day  on  the  telephone  by  the 


76  The  Real  Kaiser 

Kaiser,  ''Your  humble  servant  could  not  stand 
before  j^ou  trembling  more  abjectly  than  I  do." 

''How  is  that?"  asked  the  Kaiser  sharply, 
scenting  some  misdemeanour. 

"Because  I  was  having  a  cold  bath  when  your 
call  came  through,  and  stand  at  the  'phone  drip- 
ping and  shivering. ' ' 

There  was  a  roar  of  Imperial  laughter  as 
the  Kaiser  bade  him  go  and  dry  himself,  and 
then  come  and  see  him  at  once.  For  the  rest 
of  that  day  the  Emperor  was  in  high  feather. 

When  the  Kaiser  had  the  post-card  craze,  he 
himself  designed  some  comic  cards,  not  very 
funny  perhaps,  but  he  had  them  reproduced 
for  distribution  among  his  friends.  Now  the 
Kaiser's  stationery  is  fearful  and  wonderful. 
He  affects  a  light  blue  paper  of  beautiful  qual- 
ity, and  bearing  an  elaborate  monogram.  The 
sheets  are  of  large  size,  and  are  never  folded; 
so  that  the  envelopes  which  contain  his  commu- 
nications ace  of  a  goodly  size.  They  are  all 
marked  with  the  instruction  "Matter  of  the 
highest  importance,"  and  very  often  they  do 
contain  matter  of  importance  to  the  recipients. 

Well,  the  Kaiser  made  a  list  of  pompous  ex- 
pectant people  around  the  Court,  including  the 
impossible  candidates  for  all  sorts  of  distinc- 


The  Kaiser  s  Lighter  Moments        77 

tions,  and  to  each  one  he  addressed  one  of  his 
funny  post  cards  in  one  of  his  portentous  en- 
velopes. He  had  all  these  communications  de- 
livered by  hand  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  so 
that  every  office  and  title  seeker  was  rung  out 
of  his  bed  to  receive  the  Imperial  missive.  In 
many  cases  a  well-deserved  rebuke  was  doubt- 
less administered,  but  the  feelings  of  worthy 
servants  so  bitterly  hoaxed  and  disappointed 
may  also  be  taken  into  account.  In  many  cases 
the  Kaiser  rubbed  it  in;  in  fact,  the  joke  kept 
the  Court  guffawing  for  a  week. 

One  of  the  victims  of  the  Emperor's  keen 
sense  of  humour  was  King  Ferdinand  of  Bul- 
garia, and  the  jest  was  perpetrated  at  a  time 
when  the  Kaiser  was  his  host.  King  Ferdi- 
nand, even  as  a  young  man,  was  not  exactly 
slim,  and  was  always  keenly  conscious  of  his 
own  dignity.  The  incident  occurred  after  a 
dinner  at  the  castle  of  Brunswick  on  a  beauti- 
ful night,  when  a  magnificent  band  was  playing 
in  the  castle  grounds.  King  Ferdinand  was 
leaning  far  out  of  a  window,  in  order  the  better 
to  hear,  and  displayed  a  broad  and  tempting 
back.  Behind  him  crept  the  Kaiser,  and 
brought  the  Mailed  Fist  down  between  his 
shoulders  with  a  resounding  thwack. 


78  The  Real  Kaiser 

King  Ferdinand  turned,  furious  and  red,  and 
when  he  saw  who  his  assailant  was,  summoned 
all  his  dignity  to  the  occasion.  ''I  pray  your 
Majesty  to  abstain  from  practical  jokes,"  he 
said,  and  withdrew,  refusing  to  be  conciliated. 
The  pair  next  met  in  London  at  the  funeral  of 
King  Edward  but  the  Bulgarian  monarch  re- 
fused either  to  forgive  or  forget.  The  very 
sight  of  William  caused  him  to  growl  like  a 
sullen  bear,  though  the  Kaiser  persistently  ig- 
nored his  resentment. 

Herr  Haby,  the  good  barber  who  wears  the 
title  of  Hof  Friseur,  and  shaves  the  Kaiser  once 
a  day,  has  to  be  very  punctual,  for  the  Kaiser's 
day  is  mapped  out  very  carefully  beforehand. 
On  one  occasion  he  was  a  few  minutes  late,  but 
the  Kaiser  did  not  appear  to  hear  his  apology. 
When  he  came  on  the  next  day,  his  master  said 
carelessly,  "By  the  way,  have  you  still  got  the 
gold  watch  I  presented  to  you?" 

*'Yes,  Majesty,  here  it  is." 

' '  It  does  not  appear  to  be  as  good  as  I  thought 
it  was  when  I  purchased  it.  Please  give  it  to 
me,  and  I  will  replace  it  with  a  better  one. ' ' 

The  watch  was  delivered,  and  poor  Herr  Haby 
received  in  exchange  a  big  nickel  affair,  costing 
about  two  marks. 


The  Kaiser  s  Lighter  Moments        79 

There  is  also  a  very  practical  side  to  the 
jokes  the  Kaiser  plays  on  his  business  friends. 
He  once  invited  a  party  of  them  to  drink  beer 
with  him  one  evening,  and  deftly  introduced 
the  subject  of  one  of  the  Imperial  schemes 
which  required  money  for  its  execution.  He 
followed  this  with  a  subscription  list,  which  he 
handed  to  Herr  Thyssen,  the  iron  King,  an  old 
fellow  who  is  careful  of  his  pence.  With  a  wry 
face  Thyssen  wrote  himself  down  for  £5,000, 
and  returned  the  list. 

"Oh,  this  will  never  do,"  said  the  Kaiser, 
glancing  at  it,  ' '  when  I  come  to  pass  it  to  some 
of  our  friends  here,  who  will  come  lower  down, 
they  will  be  ashamed  to  give  such  small  sums 
as  their  proportion  will  represent.  You  must 
double  it,  at  least." 

Some  time  later  there  was  another  beer  drink- 
ing, and  another  subscription  list.  When  a 
third  invitation  was  sent  round,  the  victims  took 
counsel  among  themselves.  The  result  was 
that  when  the  Kaiser  entered  the  room,  and 
begged  them  to  be  seated,  they  remained  stand- 
ing; while  Thyssen  silently  turned  out  his 
breeches  pocket,  showing  that  it  was  empty. 

"Oh,  is  that  the  matter?"  laughed  the  Kaiser, 
"well,  gentlemen,  the  beer  is  free  to-night." 


80  The  Real  Kaiser 

Perhaps  the  best  test  of  a  sense  of  humour  is 
the  bearing  of  the  humourist  when  the  joke  is 
against  himself. 

On  the  occasion  of  one  of  the  Kaiser's  visits 
to  this  country,  the  Eton  boys  met  him  at  Wind- 
sor station,  and  unharnessing  the  horses  from 
the  carriage,  dragged  him  up  to  the  Castle 
themselves.  The  Kaiser  saw  a  good  chance  to 
make  a  speech,  and  rose  while  the  unharnessing 
was  going  on.  He  had  just  explained  what  a 
pleasure  it  was  for  him  to  visit  "dear  Grand- 
mamma," when  all  arrangements  were  com- 
pleted. Off  went  the  equipage,  causing  the  Em- 
peror to  sit  down  with  disconcerting  sudden- 
ness. 

That  would  have  been  a  very  good  time  to 
laugh,  but  the  Kaiser  was  as  black  as  thunder. 
Indeed,  he  has  never  since  been  able  to  endure 
the  sight  of  a  boy  in  a  short  jacket  and  a  shabby 
tall  hat. 

By  way  of  contrast,  a  scene  on  Epsom  race- 
course is  worth  recalling.  One  of  King  George 's 
race-horses  had  just  won,  amid  a  storm  of 
cheers;  and  the  jockey  was  an  unconscionably 
long  time  in  returning  to  the  paddock  to  weigh 
in.  During  the  expectant  lull  a  voice  was  raised 
in  banter,  a  big  voice  from  one  of  the  cheap 


The  Kaiser's  Lighter  Moments        81 

rings,  a  voice  roughened  by  many  years  of  call- 
ing the  odds.  The  banter  was  none  too  delicate, 
but  just  the  sort  of  rough  chaff  a  British  open- 
air  crowd  loves.     And  the  subject  was  the  King. 

Instinctively  all  eyes  turned  to  the  spot 
where  he  stood  among  his  noblemen,  and  it  was 
seen  that  he  was  convulsed  by  an  uncontrolla- 
ble fit  of  jolly  British  laughter.  The  group 
round  him  was  similarly  affected,  and  from  the 
100,000  people  present  a  roar  went  up  to  the 
open  sky.  A  king  and  his  subjects  joining  in 
honest  mirth  at  a  joke  against  Eoyalty,  a  fine 
sight  for  the  breezy  British  downs. 

Now,  would  the  Kaiser's  sense  of  humour 
have  permitted  him  to  laugh  in  public  at  a  joke 
against  himself?  The  answer,  as  they  say  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  is  in  the  vernacular. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  VAIN  KAISER 

"Vanity,  Vanity!     There  is  nothing  in  him  but  Vanity." 
— Herr  Behel. 

LuDWiG  Ganghofer,  the  Bavarian  novelist  whom 
the  Kaiser  admires,  had  one  trying  experience 
with  him.  The  Kaiser  brought  to  him  a  poem 
he  had  himself  written,  and  asked  that  he  should 
criticise  it.  It  was  frankly  a  bad  piece  of  work ; 
probably  it  did  not  scan.  Ganghofer  prepared 
to  break  the  fact  to  William  gently,  by  remark- 
ing, '^The  poem  seems  to  require  alteration  in 
certain  respects,"  when  he  found  the  Kaiser 
gazing  at  him  in  unaffected  amazement. 

With  a  puzzled  face  the  Kaiser  took  the  poem 
and  read  it  through.  Then  his  brow  cleared. 
"Oh,  I  see,"  he  said,  ''it  requires  my  signa- 
ture. ' '  And  calling  for  a  pen,  he  perfected  the 
work. 

Now  that  is  the  story  of  a  man  who  is  full  of 
personal  vanity,  and  not  merely  a  man  swollen 
with  the  importance  of  his  position  as  autocrat 
of  a  great  Empire.  Not  that  the  Kaiser  ever 
overlooked  the  latter  fact. 

82 


The  Vain  Kaiser  88 

One  day  he  needed  a  knife  to  cut  the  end  of 
his  cigar,  and  a  young  officer  handed  him  one. 
'  *  Keep  that, ' '  he  said  in  returning  it, ' '  and  pre- 
serve it  carefully.     One  day  it  will  be  historic. ' ' 

But  his  personal  vanity  shouts  aloud  in  a 
thousand  characteristics.  It  proclaims  itself  in 
the  fashion  of  his  moustache,  in  his  love  for  uni- 
f  omis,  and  in  the  importance  he  attaches  to  them 
and  to  titles.  He  could  find  no  better  way  of 
expressing  his  resentment  at  Great  Britain 
when  the  war  broke  out,  than  by  renouncing  his 
titles,  and  returning  his  British  uniforms.  He 
sent  a  message  to  that  effect  to  the  British 
Ambassador  in  Berlin  before  the  war  was  many 
hours  old.  "His  Majesty  begs  that  you  will  tell 
the  King  that  he  has  been  proud  of  the  titles  of 
British  Field  Marshall  and  British  Admiral, 
but  that  in  consequence  of  what  has  occurred,  he 
must  now  at  once  divest  himself  of  those  titles." 

The  uniforms  have  duly  been  returned,  but 
the  Kaiser  is  still  able  to  wear  more  different 
uniforms  than  any  other  man  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 

He  is  entitled  to  wear  150  different  kinds  of 
foreign  uniform  alone,  while  the  variety  of  Ger- 
man uniforms  he  can  assume  brings  the  total  up 
to  well  over  500.     A  whole  suite  of  apartments, 


84  The  Beat  Kaiser 

full  of  wardrobes,  is  devoted  at  Potsdam  to  tlie 
housing  of  the  Kaiser's  uniforms,  and  he  often 
wears  ten  or  a  dozen  uniforms  in  the  course  of  a 
day.  If,  for  instance,  he  were  receiving  a  dis- 
tinguished Russian  in  uniform,  he  would  put  on 
one  of  his  thirty  Russian  uniforms  for  the  occa- 
sion ;  and  so  on. 

It  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  he  has  the 
privilege,  in  some  honorary  capacity,  of  wear- 
ing the  unifonn  of  every  regiment  in  the  Ger- 
man Army.  It  is  amazing  to  find,  though,  that 
he  cherishes  this  privilege  and  exercises  it. 

A  story  was  circulated  in  Paris  that  the 
Crown  Prince  one  day  found  him  about  to  go 
out,  attired  in  the  full  dress  uniform  of  a  Ger- 
man admiral,  and  asked  with  some  curiosity 
where  he  was  going.  ''To  the  Aquarium,"  re- 
plied the  Kaiser.  I  am  assured  from  Germany 
that  this  story  is  a  foul  and  malicious  untruth. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  when  the  flying  arm 
was  added  to  the  German  Army,  the  Kaiser  did 
not  lose  a  day  in  designing  a  new  uniform  for 
the  aviation  branch,  and  that  he  claimed  the 
privilege  of  being  the  first  person  to  wear  it. 

Of  decorations  he  has  no  less  than  323,  and  he 
puts  a  due  value  on  them  all.  He  also  attaches 
tremendous  importance  to  the  personal  gift  of 


I 


The  Vain  Kaiser  85 

a  decoration,  and  thinks  such  an  honour,  coming 
from  him,  far  outweighs  many  considerations 
more  solid  in  character.  This  was  discovered 
by  an  unfortunate  musical  instrument  maker  of 
Markneukirchen. 

This  good  man  contrived  a  motor-horn  which 
sounded  four  separate  notes  of  surpassing  clear- 
ness and  beauty.  He  was  so  pleased  with  his 
invention  that  he  had  a  fine  silver  model  made, 
and  sent  it  to  the  Emperor.  It  was  tried  on  the 
Imperial  motor-car,  and  pleased  the  owner  so 
much  that  he  said  that  he  would  personally  deco- 
r'ate  the  clever  inventor. 

In  conferring  the  decoration,  the  Kaiser  made 
a  gracious  little  speech,  in  which  he  stated  that 
he  was  so  pleased  with  the  new  motor-horn  that, 
as  a  mark  of  his  extreme  favour,  he  would  re- 
serve it  for  his  own  exclusive  use.  Probably  it 
has  not  yet  dawned  upon  him  that  the  enterpris- 
ing musical  instrument  maker  might  much  pre- 
fer to  draw  the  profits  from  the  sale  of  a  motor- 
horn  "as  used  by  the  Kaiser."  His  colossal 
vanity  prevents  such  a  consideration  from  oc- 
curring to  him. 

The  Kaiser  used  to  have  his  ** civil"  clothes 
made  in  London,  and  was  very  particular  about 
the  cut  and  fit  of  them.    He  thinks  he  looks  best. 


86  The  Beat  Kaiser 

when  out  of  uniform,  in  Harris  tweeds,  and  they 
certainly  suit  his  figure  and  complexion.  There 
is  one  tweed  suit  which  he  received  not  long  ago 
which  certainly  contains  something  he  has  not 
reckoned  for.  The  tailor  who  made  the  coat 
was  a  pronounced  socialist,  and  requiring  some 
padding  for  the  shoulders,  laid  his  hand  upon  a 
copy  of  the  Socialist  newspaper  Justice.  It 
seemed  an  appropriate  padding  for  such  a  gar- 
ment, so  in  it  went,  and  there  it  probably  re- 
mains to  this  day. 

Long  before  King  Edward  made  the  Hom- 
burg  hat  popular  in  this  country,  it  was  the  fa- 
vourite headgear  of  the  Kaiser  when  out  of  uni- 
form. He  is  an  amateur  of  neckties,  and  once 
confessed  to  the  ownership  of  18,000.  He  wears 
his  clothes  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  still  courts 
the  opinion  the  world  may  choose  to  form  as  to 
his  personal  appearance. 

One  of  the  bugbears  of  his  existence  springs 
from  the  prevailing  German  fashions  and  cus- 
toms with  clothes,  more  especially  among  the 
men.  For  years  the  Kaiser  has  been  trying  to 
get  his  men  to  conform  to  the  ordinary  conven- 
tions concerning  clothing,  and  has  made  the 
most  rigid  rules,  and  given  the  most  elaborate 
instructions  on  this  point. 


The  Vain  Kaiser  87 

It  has  not  been  of  the  slightest  use.  A  Ger- 
man of  good  social  standing  will  cheerfully  don 
evening  dress  to  attend  a  wedding  ceremony, 
but  the  evening  celebration  of  the  festivities  will 
lind  him  beaming  in  the  foyer  of  the  opera,  in  all 
the  glory  of  a  frock  suit,  bowler  hat,  and  vivid 
yellow  boots.  He  says  this  is  "bequem,"  con- 
venient ;  to  the  utter  stranger  it  is  sometimes  a 
little  startling. 

The  Kaiser's  vanity  has  prevented  his  attain- 
ing anything  like  the  average  girth  of  the  mean- 
est of  his  middle-aged  subjects.  When  a  young 
'man,  he  marked  a  certain  hole  in  his  belt,  and 
decided  that  beyond  that  he  would  not  permit 
his  waist  to  expand.  Although  constitutionally 
inclined  to  stoutness  and  a  hearty  eater  of  Ger- 
man food,  his  active  habits  have  enabled  him  to 
keep  his  resolution. 

He  is  unaffectedly  distressed  at  the  stoutness 
of  his  subjects;  it  seems  to  reflect  upon  him. 
He  is  always  counselling  them  to  take  down 
their  weight.  "More  sport,  less  beer,"  he  says 
to  the  students,  who  take  no  notice.  ''Less  of 
sweet  food,"  he  urges  upon  the  young  women, 
but  they  will  not  listen. 

If  he  does  not  like  fat  people,  he  likes  big 
things.     His    visiting    cards    are    the    largest 


88  The  Real  Kaiser 

known ;  six  inches  by  four.  When  the  plans  for 
a  German  monument  in  South-west  Africa  were 
discussed,  the  Kaiser  wanted  an  elephant;  but 
the  sculptors  did  not  consider  an  elephant  suit- 
able. In  the  difference  of  opinion,  the  monu- 
ment was  allowed  to  remain  unerected. 

When  the  Kaiser  visited  Hamburg  on  one  oc- 
casion, his  sharp  eyes  fell  upon  the  railway  sta- 
tion, and  he  frowned.  ' '  We  want  a  new  railway 
station  here,"  he  said  to  the  Burgomaster,  and 
described  with  his  right  arm  an  arc  of  the  sky. 
This  is  a  characteristic  gesture  with  him,  espe- 
cially of  recent  years.  It  indicates  vastness. 
He  attended  to  the  Hamburg  railway  station 
himself;  it  is  certainly  big  and  convenient  be- 
yond the  dreams  of  a  traveller  in  Great  Brit- 
ain. 

The  first  statue  of  himself  the  Kaiser  permit- 
ted to  be  erected  in  Germany  stands  on  a  bridge 
that  crosses  the  Ehine  at  Cologne.  It  weighs 
four  and  a  half  tons. 

His  vanity  compels  him  to  many  unworthy 
poses,  one  of  which  is  that  of  a  man  more 
erudite  than  he  really  is.  One  story  is  inno- 
cently told  by  Professor  Van't  Hoff,  a  dear  old 
Dutchman  who  won  the  Nobel  prize  for  chemis- 
try.    He  was  then  at  Amsterdam  University, 


The  Vain  Kaiser  89 

but  the  honour  won  him  a  very  good  appoint- 
ment at  Berlin. 

Van't  Hoff  is  the  man  who  knows  more  about 
the  Aurora  Borealis  than  anybody  else  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  He  has  specialised  through 
a  long  and  useful  life  in  the  peculiarities  of  this 
Arctic  phenomenon.  The  surest  way  to  his 
good  graces  is  to  speak  well  of  the  Aurora  Bore- 
alis. 

Soon  after  the  professor  arrived  in  Berlin, 
he  was  invited  to  the  Palace  and  entertained  by 
the  Kaiser  and  Crown  Prince,  en  famille.  The 
conversation  soon  chanced  to  turn  upon  the 
Aurora  Borealis,  and  the  excellent  professor 
was  amazed  to  find  how  much  both  his  hosts 
knew  of  that  interesting  winter  display.  They 
were  able  to  speak  of  his  own  interesting  theo- 
ries, and  to  deride  as  mere  charlatanism  the  wild 
speculations  of  other  writers  on  the  same  topic. 
The  professor  has  recorded  that  he  was  filled 
with  admiration  and  pleasure  at  the  interesting 
way  in  which  the  Emperor  spoke  of  these 
things. 

By  no  means  so  easy  a  victim  was  Herr  von 
Troft  du  Solz,  the  Prussian  Minister  of  Educa- 
tion, who  accompanied  the  Kaiser  on  a  trip  in 
Rhineland.    At    Treves     the    Kaiser    turned 


90  The  Real  Kaiser 

sharply  to  him  and  asked,  ''What  Roman  Le- 
gions were  stationed  here?" 

Troft  du  Solz  knew  the  answer,  for  a  very- 
good  reason.  One  of  his  subordinates  in  the 
department  had  been  called  upon  for  some  in- 
formation for  the  Kaiser  only  a  few  days  before 
the  trip  started,  and  it  covered  the  very  point 
on  which  the  Kaiser  was  now  questioning  him. 
But  he  bravely  said  he  didn't  know. 

"The  20th  and  21st  Legions  were  stationed 
here,"  said  Majesty,  and  every  one  looked  re- 
spectful admiration. 

Such  a  man  would  naturally  be  ready  at  a  mo- 
ment's  notice  to  fill  a  role  for  which  he  had  no 
qualification  whatever.  His  genuine  interest  in 
all  the  fine  arts  accounts  naturally  for  the 
prominence  he  has  given  to  them  throughout  his 
life.  But  only  an  inordinate  vanity  could  com- 
pel him  to  pose  as  an  exponent  of  each  in  turn, 
and  gravely  to  give  lessons  to  experts  of  the 
very  highest  order. 

It  is  nothing  to  him  to  show  a  conductor  the 
due  interpretation  of  a  musical  passage,  or  a 
ballet  mistress  some  intricate  dance  steps.  Ref- 
erence is  made  elsewhere  to  this  side  of  his 
character. 

One  finds  him  equally  immersed  in  much  less 


The  Vain  Kaiser  91 

interesting  trifles.  He  once  took  some  interest 
in  the  establishment  of  a  brick-kiln  on  his  estate 
at  Cadinen,  and  helped  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
working  of  the  plant.  Later  he  arranged  an  im- 
portant ceremony  at  the  brickyard,  nothing  less 
than  his  own  investiture  as  '^Ehrenziegelei- 
meister,"  that  is,  honorary  master  brickmaker. 
And  it  was  a  very  grave  and  solemn  ceremony. 

His  vanity  has  recently  made  him  pose  as  the 
stern  man  who  never  smiles,  a  pose  maintained 
now  for  some  years  before  the  public.  Once, 
when  being  photographed,  he  was  constrained 
t'o  smile  at  the  rather  imperious  instructions  is- 
sued to  him  by  the  photographer.  When  the 
proof  was  shown  to  him,  it  was  discovered  that 
he  was  represented  with  a  slight  smile.  His  ap- 
prehension was  at  once  aroused,  and  he  never 
rested  until  the  plate  of  the  photograph  had  been 
destroyed  in  his  presence. 

One  of  the  small  things  that  might  amuse  an- 
other King,  but  embitters  his  existence,  is  the 
presence  in  Berlin  of  an  exact  double  of  him- 
self, who  is  a  chimney-sweep.  The  reproduc- 
tion of  this  man 's  picture  in  the  daily  papers — 
and  this  is  constantly  occurring — is  the  prelude 
to  one  of  the  Kaiser's  bad  days. 

His  vanity  has  its  tragic  as  well  as  its  amus- 


92  The  Real  Kaiser 

ing  side.  For  him  Ms  physical  affliction  is  a  bit- 
ter thing  to  bear,  but  his  own  resolution  and 
skill  have  made  it  almost  unnoticeable.  Long 
ago  he  learned  to  make  his  right  hand  do  the 
work  of  both,  and  he  manages  so  deftly  that  an 
American  writer  once  wrote  of  him,  in  a  burst 
of  enthusiasm,  * '  He  is  the  only  man  in  the  world 
who  can  eat  lobster  gracefully  with  but  one 
hand." 


J 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  KULTUR-KAISER 

"Like  a  young  hunting-dog,  nosing  about  from  one  thing 
to  another." — Bismarck. 

"The  Princes  of  the  West  were  the  patrons  of  German 
culture;  the  Ilohenzollerns  were  the  political  teachers  and 
taskmasters," — von  Buelow. 

There  is  no  question  I  am  more  frequently 
asked  in  these  days  than  this: — "But  what  do 
•they  mean  by  always  talking  about  their  cul- 
ture?" Americans  understand  easily  enough, 
especially  those  who  hail  from  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Boston,  Mass.,  but  the  root  idea  of  kul- 
tur  is  somehow  repugnant  to  an  Englishman. 
This  is  a  country  where  the  deliberate  encour- 
agement of  the  arts  and  sciences  is  pooh-poohed, 
and  where  the  State  concerns  itself  least  of  all 
with  such  matters  as  drama  and  music.  British 
concern  for  creative  art  and  literature  is  occa- 
sionally shown  by  the  granting  of  some  beggarly 
pension  to  the  starving  dependants  of  a  dead 
genius,  but  no  more  than  that  is  done. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  Kaiser  sup- 
ports three  large  theatres ;  I  believe  he  supports 

93 


94j  The  Real  Kaiser 

more  than  that,  but  cannot  at  the  moment  make 
sure  of  the  details.  He  does  not  support  them 
because  he  wishes  to  make  money  out  of  them, 
or  because  the  theatre  is  a  pet  hobby  of  his  own 
— though  he  is  more  than  a  little  interested  in 
the  theatre — but  because  he  believes  the  theatre 
is  an  institution  worthy  of  State  patronage. 

When  a  German  asks  me  why  Shakespeare  is 
not  more  frequently  played  on  our  stage,  and 
I  tell  him  that  Shakespeare  spells  ruin  to  the 
manager,  he  simply  does  not  understand.  He 
does  not  understand  in  the  first  place  that  the 
presentation  of  Shakespeare  is  left  to  private 
enterjjrise  in  the  rich  and  educated  country  that 
produced  him;  nor  does  he  understand  that 
British  theatre-goers  are  so  little  ''cultured" 
that  they  deliberately  stay  away  from  the  thea- 
tre when  a  play  of  Shakespeare  is  on  the  boards. 
To  a  German  Shakespeare  is  one  of  our  great 
national  possessions ;  one  of  the  few  things  they 
really  envy  u-s. 

This  may  not  serve  altogether  to  illustrate 
what  the  German  means  by  culture,  and  though 
it  is  difficult  to  indulge  in  broad  generalisations, 
I  think  I  may  venture  to  say  that  the  average 
German  is  really  fond  of  good  music.  Often  he 
is  a  good  performer  himself;  he  is  nearly  al- 


The  Kultiir-Kaiser  95 

ways  an  excellent  listener.  He  would  be 
ashamed  not  to  be  able  to  appreciate  these 
things,  it  is  part  of  his  teaching  as  well  as  his 
instinct  to  like  them. 

The  GeiTQan  goes  farther  than  that.  He 
makes  a  duty  of  many  things  we  regard  as  pleas- 
ures for  those  who  like  them,  and  things  to  be 
avoided  by  those  who  do  not.  Methodical,  and 
keen  to  learn,  the  German  early  recognises  that 
there  is  a  right  way  and  a  wrong  way  of  doing 
things,  and  only  the  right  wa}'^  appeals  to  him. 
This  perpetual  search  for  the  right  way  is  a 
branch  of  his  endless  topic  of  ''kultur." 

I  once  mentioned  in  a  German  house  that  my 
only  claim  to  athletic  distinction  had  been  won 
as  an  oarsman,  and  at  once  brought  one  of  the 
youths  present  to  my  side.  Nothing  would  sat- 
isfy him  but  that  I  should  visit  his  rowing  club 
at  Wannsee,  and  give  my  opinion  upon  it. 
Well,  it  was  a  more  perfectly  arranged  place 
than  anything  of  the  kind  I  had  ever  seen ;  full 
of  all  sorts  of  ingenious  devices  for  getting  the 
boats  in  and  out  of  the  water,  and  diagrams 
showing  the  anatomically  correct  positions  and 
the  wrong  positions  in  rowing.  It  was  really  an 
object  lesson  in  organisation. 

Then  he  took  me  out  upon  a  balcony  overlook- 


96  The  Real  Kaiser 

ing  the  water,  and  showed  me  an  eight-oared 
crew  just  returning  to  the  shed.  He  said  the 
men  were  training  for  a  regatta,  and  were  cred- 
ited with  much  ' '  kultur. "  ''  What  did  I  think  ? ' ' 
The  best  I  could  say  was  that  no  one  of  them 
seemed  to  row  any  worse  than  the  others ;  for  a 
more  wooden  exhibition  of  oarsmanship  it 
would  be  hard  to  imagine. 

But  it  is  not  only  by  encouraging  all  forms  of 
art  and  by  talking  about  "kultur,"  in  connexion 
with  every  conceivable  subject  that  the  Germans 
have  earned  a  reputation  as  a  cultured  race.  In 
the  days  before  the  materialistic  era  of  the  Ger- 
man Emj)ire,  Germany  produced  a  long  line  of 
great  musicians,  poets,  writers,  and  artist 
craftsmen  that  entitle  the  country  to  the  claim 
so  boldly  made.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  these 
great  men  were  the  product  of  the  Southern 
States,  and  of  the  free  cities  of  the  West;  and 
that  Prussia  can  lay  little  claim  to  any  share  in 
the  sum  of,  Germany's  culture  product.  It  is 
further  noticeable  that  since  the  era  of  indus- 
trial progress,  the  race  of  intellectual  giants 
seems  dead  in  Germany ;  and  that  culture  there 
is  confined  to  an  intense  appreciation  of  all 
forms  of  art,  good  and  bad  as  well ;  and  to  crea- 
tive efforts  that  are  either  frankly  mediocre ;  or, 


The  Kultur-Kaiser  97 

as  in  the  case  of  the  music  of  Richard  Strauss, 
left  for  the  verdict  of  another  generation,  since 
the  present  one  is  so  fully  divided  in  opinion. 

Early  in  his  reign  the  Kaiser  took  German 
culture  under  his  wing,  with  results  that  were 
sometimes  ludicrous.  He  has  said  many 
shrewd  things  and  few  stupid  ones  about  art. 
He  has  done  some  amazingly  foolish  things  in 
his  desire  to  show  that,  as  an  exponent  of  Ger- 
man culture,  he  can  add  performance  to  under- 
standing and  appreciation.  It  must  be  said  for 
him  that  one  section  of  Germans  has  encour- 
aged him  in  this  course  by  praise  that  either  says 
little  for  their  veracity,  or  condemns  them  for 
rank  bad  taste.  But  the  most  nauseous  German 
flatterers  have  had  their  rivals  in  this  country, 
as  any  one  may  assure  himself  who  cares  to  turn 
up  the  files  of  the  London  daily  papers  of  the 
day  succeeding  the  performance  of  his  prepos- 
terous ''Hymn  to  Aegir,"  at  Covent  Garden 
Opera  House.  Nor  was  there  in  this  country  a 
section  of  critics,  as  in  Germany,  to  say  frankly 
that  the  composition  was  formless,  and  mediocre 
to  the  verge  of  flatness. 

Anybody  really  interested  in  the  Kaiser's  ar- 
tistic performance  may  be  referred  to  a  book 
published  in  1907  by  Professor  Seidel,  entitled 


98  The  Real  Kaiser 

Der  Kaiser  und  die  Kunst,  profusely  illustrated 
with  masterpieces  from  the  Imperial  pencil  and 
brush.  The  Kaiser  once  studied  art  under  Pro- 
fessor Salzmann,  and  to  that  painter  he  after- 
wards sent  a  seapiece  for  criticism.  In  due 
course  the  critic's  remarks  reached  the  Kaiser; 
they  were  so  carefully  worded  that  the  Imperial 
artist  at  once  telegraphed  back,  "What  does 
wind  too  anxious  mean?  Is  it  so  stormily 
painted  that  you  shuddered  at  it,  or  is  it  not 
stormy  enough  I" 

In  Professor  Seidel's  book  may  be  found  a 
reproduction  of  one  of  the  Emperor's  most  fa- 
mous pictures,  entitled  the  German  vine.  It  is 
a  crude  production,  but  interesting,  since  it 
shows  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  sheltering 
gratefully  under  the  German  vine  of  culture. 

The  Kaiser's  interest  in  the  theatre  has  al- 
ready been  mentioned;  he  really  takes  a  regal 
view  of  his  theatrical  responsibilities.  In  an 
address  delivered  to  the  actors  and  actresses  at 
the  Eoyal  Schauspielhaus  he  defined  his  position 
with  uncompromising  exactness. 

"When  I  succeeded  to  the  throne  I  was  con- 
vinced and  had  firmly  determined  that  the  Royal 
theatre,  like  the  schools  and  the  universities, 


The  Kultur-Kaiser  99 

must  be  an  instrument  of  the  monarch.  .  .  . 
The  theatre  is  also  one  of  my  weapons." 

One  of  his  hereditary  positions  is  that  of 
titular  theatrical  censor,  a  position  he  has  not 
hesitated  to  use,  when  occasion  arose.  He  is 
further  a  stickler  for  correctness  in  all  things 
theatrical.  On  one  occasion,  during  the  perfor- 
mance of  one  of  Shakespeare 's  plays,  he  thought 
he  noticed  some  liberty  taken  with  the  text, 
and  sent  for  the  manager.  The  event  proved 
that  he  was  correct,  the  Geraian  exponents  of 
culture  had  interpolated  four  lines  by  Dugel- 
staedt  in  order  to  make  the  meaning  of  a  pass- 
age clearer.  I  confess  with  shame  that  I  do  not 
know  v/ho  Dugelstaedt  is,  but  the  Kaiser  knew. 
''One  does  not  take  liberties  with  Shakespeare," 
he  thundered,  and  the  offending  Dugelstaedt 
had  to  be  excised. 

Some  of  his  theatrical  dicta  are  worth  repro- 
ducing, if  only  for  their  shrewdness  and  com- 
mon sense.  For  instance, ' '  The  working  classes 
do  not  like  plays  dealing  with  unemployment  or 
strikes,  but  dramas  of  history  and  romance." 
He  also  said  about  opera,  ''Glueck  is  the  man 
for  me;  Wagner  is  too  noisy." 

His  theatrical  enterprises  cost  him  something 


100  The  Real  Kaiser 

like  £75,000  a  year,  but  he  does  not  mind  that 
nowadays.  He  has  designed  dresses  for  Verdi's 
Aida,  and  among  the  ballet  productions  super- 
vised and  dressed  by  him  are  two  masterpieces, 
Coppelia  and  Corfu.  It  is  stated  that  once  on 
his  yacht  at  Kiel  he  obliged  his  guests  with  a 
spirited  rendering  of  a  British  hornpipe,  but  I 
prefer  not  to  believe  this. 

He  has  certainly  shown  himself  possessed  of 
a  rare  sense  of  dramatic  fitness.  Once,  when 
he  was  shooting,  that  rare  European  animal  an 
elk  fell  to  his  rifle.  He  at  once  instructed  the 
huntsmen  to  sound  an  ''elk  call."  It  was  an 
awkward  moment ^f or  the  chief  huntsman,  who 
had  to  confess  that'  his  men  knew  no  elk  call, 
and  feared  that  Majesty  would  have  to  content 
himself  with  the  ordinary  deer  call.  ''Wait  a 
few  minutes,"  said  William,  "and  I  will  write 
you  an  elk  call."  And  he  did,  to  the  supreme 
satisfaction  of  every  German  present. 

One  of  his  more  recent  achievements  was  to 
write  and  compose  eight  marching  songs  for  the 
army.     That  was  before  the  war. 

Architecture  and  statuary  interest  him  even 
more  than  music,  pictures,  and  the  theatre. 
Some  of  the  buildings  he  has  designed  and 
erected  have  merits,  both  in  style  and  conveni- 


The  Kultur-Kaiser  101 

ence ;  but  of  recent  years  he  has  been  possessed 
with  a  passion  for  bigness.  He  is  not  alone 
among  Germans  of  the  twentieth  century  in  this 
respect ;  indeed,  if  there  is  one  thing  more  mo- 
notonous than  anything  else  about  recent  Ger- 
man taste  it  is  this  passion  for  huge  things.  It 
finds  its  outward  and  most  forbidding  expres- 
sion in  such  statues  as  the  monstrous  Bismarck 
**denkmal"  at  Hamburg,  an  immense  mis- 
shapen mass  of  stone  that  stands  on  a  command- 
ing eminence  in  that  beautiful  city,  and  de- 
presses the  visitor  by  its  sheer  size  and  ugli- 
ness. 

Whether  the  Kaiser  is  himself  responsible  for 
this  passion  for  things  that  are  kolossal  in  mod- 
ern Germany,  or  whether  he  is  only  the  outward 
sign  of  a  craze  that  has  bitten  a  whole  race, 
would  be  difficult  to  determine.  It  is  certain 
that  of  recent  years  the  German  finds  an  outlet 
for  his  cultured  soul  in  sheer  vastness,  whether 
it  be  in  meals  or  mailboats.  ''Not  big  enough" 
is  the  hardest  criticism  a  German  can  pass  upon 
anything.  The  same  passion  is  in  evidence  in 
America,  where  nature  has  shown  the  way,  and 
where  big  things  often  seem  only  in  keeping 
with  the  atmosphere  and  physical  aspect  of  the 
country.     But  in  Germany  it  constantly  jars. 


102  The  Real  Kaiser 

It  is  one  phase  of  the  culture  which  has  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  the  material  prosperity  re- 
sulting from  the  new  regime  of  William  II  in 
Germany.  Another  expression  of  the  same  ma- 
terialism is  the  ambition  of  Berlin  to  compete 
with  Paris  for  the  reputation  of  being  a  pleas- 
ure city.  "A  night  out"  in  Berlin  is  a  por- 
tentous business,  for  which  the  ordinary  visitor 
needs  to  undergo  a  course  of  training.  A 
theatre,  a  music-hall,  a  visit  to  the  Blumensale, 
and  two  suppers  of  the  most  substantial  kind 
usually  find  the  German  reveller  inclined  for  a 
game  of  cards  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
though  in  accordance  with  the  energetic  Ger- 
man custom,  nine  o'clock  will  find  him  doing 
business  in  his  office.     And  this  also  is  culture. 

If  the  Kaiser  were  not  constantly  talking 
about  ''Ivultur,"  one  would  be  less  ready  to 
blame  him  for  the  degradation  which  German 
ideals  have  recently  undergone.  As  it  is,  he 
must  take  his  share  for  the  gross  materialism 
and  empty  display  which  is  the  hall-mark  of  the 
ultra-modern  German  culture. 


CHAPTER  X 

WHAT  GERMANS  THINK  OF  THE  KAISER 

"As  half  a  Gennan  he  has  not  much  love  for  the  Ger- 
mans, and  is  not  loved  by  them." — Hermann  Obrist. 

"Sixty  million  Germans;  seventy  million 
opinions,"  scrawled  the  Kaiser  on  the  margin 
of  a  press  cutting  which  displeased  him.  He 
has  a  very  neat  way  of  putting  things  some- 
times. 

Of  recent  years, — and  especially  since  the 
Kaiser  confided  in  the  London  Daily  Telegraph 
— it  is  hard  to  get  a  good  word  for  the  Kaiser 
from  any  German.  Young  Germans  and  old 
ones,  peaceful  Germans  and  fire-eaters,  work- 
men and  artists,  have  all  caught  the  knack  of 
grumbling  at  him.  He  can  do  or  say  nothing  to 
please  them.  They  nag  at  him  in  season  and 
out. 

This,  of  course,  before  the  declaration  of  war. 
One  gathers  that,  since  that  event,  he  has  taken 
the  place  he  covets  as  national  demi-God.  His 
reception  in  Berlin  after  the  outbreak  of  the 

103 


104)  The  Real  Kaiser 

war,  and  the  reference  made  to  him  in  German 
papers  that  were  formerly  his  most  severe 
critics,  point  to  that  conclusion. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign,  he  has 
been  subjected  to  a  public  and  private  criticism 
that  nothing  could  check.  His  acts,  his  char- 
acter, his  speeches,  lend  themselves  to  the 
critics;  and  the  German  race  is  a  critical  one, 
most  unfairly  so  in  many  respects. 

Conscious  of  his  own  good  intentions,  and  con- 
fident in  his  ability  to  execute  them,  the  Kaiser 
used  formerly  to  resent  this  criticism  very  bit- 
terly. To  check  it  he  had  recourse  to  the  very 
drastic  law  against  high  treason,  and  many  of 
his  subjects  found  themselves  arraigned  for 
Lese  majeste  because  of  utterances  of  a  very 
trivial  nature.  Sentences  aggregating  to  30,- 
000  years'  imprisonment  have  been  passed  by 
the  German  courts  in  the  endeavour  to  prevent 
Germans  from  saying  and  writing  nasty  things 
about  their'Emperor.  The  deterrent  effect  was 
not  apparent;  the  offence  seemed  rather  to 
thrive  upon  this  treatment. 

In  newspapers  of  all  shades  of  opinion — save 
only  those  that  are  official  or  semi-official, — in 
every  gathering,  whether  public  or  private,  in 
the  Eeichstag  itself,  his  acts  were  criticised  in  a 


What  Germans  Think  of  the  Kaiser     105 

manner  that  would  surprise  the  people  of  a 
country  such  as  this. 

Some  of  this  criticism  was  as  undeserved  as  it 
was  tasteless  and  spiteful.  For  instance,  the 
musical,  theatrical  and  art  critics  of  Berlin 
seemed  in  a  tacit  conspiracy  to  pooh-pooh  every- 
thing the  Kaiser  took  in  hand.  If  it  were  known 
that  he  was  particularly  interested  in  the  pro- 
duction of  a  new  opera,  that  opera  was  certain 
to  be  unmercifully  ''slated"  when  the  critics 
had  got  to  work  upon  it.  Open  sneers  at  his 
dramatic  productions,  the  pictures  he  liked,  and 
the  sculptures  he  praised  were  the  rule  rather 
than  the  exception. 

To  a  stranger,  the  Germans,  and  especially 
the  artistic  set,  exhibited  themselves  in  a  very 
unamiable  light  when  the  name  of  the  Kaiser 
was  mentioned.  But  they  had  endured  years  of 
hectoring  and  lecturing  from  him,  on  subjects 
about  which  they  knew  very  much  more  than  he, 
and  possibly  their  attitude  was  only  a  natural 
one. 

The  Germans  who  put  pen  to  paper  in  criti- 
cism of  their  Emperor  would  naturally  be  of 
the  writing  and  artistic  class,  and  some  of  their 
printed  opinions  are  amazing  in  their  frankness 
and  brutal  directness. 


106  The  Real  Kaiser 

*'Tlie  Kaiser,"  writes  Hermann  Obrist,  a 
well-known  sculptor,  "is  himself  half  an  Eng- 
lishman, and  is  fully  misunderstood  by  them ;  as 
half  a  German,  he  has  not  much  love  for  the 
Germans,  and  is  not  loved  by  them. 

'■ '  To  many  of  us  the  Kaiser  is  a  tragic  figure. 
Restless,  tireless,  homeless,  he  takes  a  passion- 
ate interest  in  'great  art,'  dedicates  monu- 
ments and  buildings,  opens  and  visits  Exhibi- 
tions, and,  in  spite  of  all,  makes  speeches  which 
could  only  have  been  delivered  by  one  of  a  thor- 
oughly inartistic  nature — or  worse,  by  one  who 
entertains  the  art  views  of  the  seventies,  the 
worst  known. 

"He  loves  and  inspires  his  army  as  few  kings 
before  him  have  done,  yet  many  of  his  officers 
fear  nothing  so  much  as  that  at  the  outbreak  of 
war  he  will  attempt  to  take  command. ' ' 

More  subtle  is  the  method  of  Ernst  von  Wol- 
zogen,  a  famous  writer : 

"The  magnificent  display  with  which  he  sur- 
rounds himself,  his  speeches,  the  fabulous  quick- 
ness with  which  his  alert  mind  grasps  anything 
new,  must  naturally  make  a  deep  impression, 
and  the  touch  of  fantastic  romanticism  in  all  his 
utterances  must  lend  him  a  poetic  charm,  even 
in  the  eyes  of  the  sober  humanity  of  to-day. 


What  Germans  Think  of  the  Kaiser     107 

*'We  have  in  our  Kaiser  a  Banner-bearer — 
not  merely  decorative,  but  physically  tireless 
and  enthusiastic  in  his  performance  of  his 
duties — whom  all  the  world  envies  us.  That 
the  Banner-bearer  should  also  be  an  intellectual 
Commander-in-chief  is,  perhaps,  too  much  to 
ask,  especially  in  our  time." 

This  was  followed  by  a  cartoon,  in  which  the 
prominent  men  in  Berlin's  artistic  world  were 
represented  as  boys  indulging  in  a  game  of  sol- 
diers, from  which  the  Kaiser  had  retired  in  a 
pet,  saying,  "Don't  want  to  be  a  Banner- 
bearer." 

"  He  is  separated  from  his  people  by  a  Chinese 
wall,"  complains  Dr.  Bruno  Wille,  one  of  Ger- 
many's many  philosophers;  who  goes  on  to  say: 
"The  knightly  and  noble  elements  in  him,  his 
wholesome  family  life,  his  tireless  idealism,  and 
the  long  maintenance  of  peace,  are  worthy  of 
recognition,  but  how  pitiable  is  the  dependence 
of  his  Government  upon  Centrists,  Junkers  and 
money  magnates. ' ' 

Another  Herr  professor,  Ludwig  Gurlitt, 
casts  his  stone  after  the  following  fashion: 

"Kaiser  Wilhelm  has  a  high  opinion  of  the 
political  possibilities  of  his  people.  It  is  pain- 
ful to  be  obliged  to  say  that  he  stands  in  antag- 


108  The  Real  Kaiser 

onism  to  the  majority  of  independent  intellect- 
ual leaders.  He  regards  his  people,  the  masses, 
as  children  not  yet  of  age,  and  thinks  the  Gov- 
ernment competent  to  prescribe  the  course  of 
their  social  and  cultural  development — a  pro- 
found and  fatal  mistake!  That  the  sovereign 
shall  decide  for  his  subjects  in  matters  of 
science,  art  and  faith  is  a  mediaBval  idea. ' ' 

"The  Kaiser's  relation  to  art,"  writes  Dr. 
Adolf  Behne,  an  art  critic,  "is  this,  that  he 
regards  himself  as  the  leader  of  art  devel- 
opment, whereas  he  stands  wholly  apart  from 
it." 

A  final  opinion  must  be  given,  as  it  comes 
from  the  theatrical  critic,  Hans  von  Huelsen, 
who  is  nearly  related  to  Graf  von  Huelsen,  the 
intendant  of  Germany's  Royal  theatres.  He  de- 
clares that  the  Kaiser's  theatrical  activities 
have  been  wholly  for  the  bad,  and  that  the 
houses  under  the  Kaiser's  control  are  on  a  much 
lower  plane'  than  the  good  theatres  under  private 
management. 

Coming  from  well-known  and  responsible 
men,  all  this  necessarily  appears  to  the  English 
reader  pretty  strong  meat.  In  this  country,  as 
I  once  said  to  a  German  friend,  we  lower  our 
voices  when  we  wish  to  say  we  do  not  altogether 


What  Germans  Think  of  the  Kaiser     109 

like  the  Albert  Memorial.  The  retort  came  pat, 
''The  Kaiser  swears  it  is  beautiful." 

If  the  things  quoted  above  are  written  and 
published,  some  idea  may  be  gained  of  what  is 
said  in  private  about  the  German  Emperor. 
Frankly,  the  Germans  are  detestable  when  they 
discuss  their  monarch;  it  is  a  sneaking  disloy- 
alty that  has  an  element  of  danger  behind  it.  If 
a  stranger,  and  especially  an  Englishman, 
chances  to  join  the  chorus  with  a  jocular  remark, 
it  is  remembered  against  him.  It  is  safer  to  in- 
terfere in  a  quarrel  between  drunken  husband 
and  wife.  And  they  have  taken  the  Crown 
Prince  to  their  bosoms. 

The  Crown  Prince  is  the  youthful  Kaiser, 
minus  the  brains  and  plus  the  taste  for  dissipa- 
tion, which  was  reflected  by  the  officers  of  the 
German  Army  who  have  occupied  the  Cham- 
pagne country  of  France.  His  musical  and 
dramatic  taste  is  limited  by  the  class  of  comic 
opera  which  has  recently  afflicted  Berlin,  a  gross 
and  decadent  offspring  of  the  Merry  Widow. 
He  habitually  consorts  with  high-born  boors, 
though  not  a  boor  himself,  either  by  nature  or 
by  training.  He  has  passed  his  thirtieth  year, 
and  has  not  yet  given  any  sign  of  real  excellence, 
except  his  ability  to  win  a  steeplechase. 


110  The  Real  Kaiser 

Yet  he  has  assumed  the  role  of  Henry  Hot- 
spur with  a  certain  deftness,  and  plays  it  with 
a  dash  that  cannot  be  denied.  He  has  won  the 
hearts  of  the  masses  by  impulsive  and  generous 
acts,  such  as  might  have  been  expected  of  his 
father's  son.  He  is  dear  to  the  Army,  hand-in- 
giove  with  Junkerdom,  and  feared  and  detested 
by  the  money  magnates  of  the  Empire.  They 
have  had  good  reason  for  their  fear  of  him. 

This  is  the  idol  Germany  set  up  in  the  place  of 
the  brilliant,  eloquent  Kaiser.  Germany  is 
about  to  pay  a  bitter  price  for  the  choice. 


CHAPTER  XI 

WHAT  THE  KAISER  THINKS  OF  THE  GERilANS 

"Germany  would  be  worse  off,  but  Germans  better  off, 
without  him." — Kappmann. 

Two  things  must  be  borne  in  mind  when  con- 
sidering the  Kaiser's  attitude  to  the  people  of 
Germany.  The  first  is,  that  he  is  the  type  of  the 
new  Germany,  which  considers  only  results.  In 
obtaining  those  results,  it  is  necessary  that  the 
highest  organisation  should  be  employed.  And 
in  Germany  the  highest  organisation  is  based  on 
a  consideration  of  human  beings  in  the  mass, 
and  not  as  individuals.  The  Kaiser  thinks  of 
his  people,  as  some  financiers  think  of  money,  in 
millions. 

The  other  consideration  is  the  fact  that  the 
Kaiser  believes  implicitly  in  his  divine  right  to 
rule  Germany,  in  small  things  as  in  great.  He 
is  not  the  first,  but  the  latest,  and  possibly  the 
last  example  of  a  ruler  with  his  soul  made  cal- 
lous by  that  belief.     He  will  probably  go  down 

to  history  as  the  irrefutable  proof  that  a  despot- 

111 


112  The  Real  Kaiser 

ism,  benevolent  in  big  things,  is  the  worst  curse 
that  could  afflict  the  individuals  of  a  race. 

The  effect  of  thinking  in  quantities  of  human 
beings  produces  the  most  staggering  impression 
that  the  visitor  gets  of  German  life  to-day.  The 
economic  necessities  of  the  country  demand  that 
so  many  millions  of  Germans  should  be  retained 
for  agricultural  production.  They  are  conse- 
quently retained,  in  some  places  under  condi- 
tions that  are  feudal  in  their  antiquity.  Poland 
is  to  be  Germanized,  and  the  German  Poles  are 
consequently  treated  as  a  huge  mass  of  human 
material  on  which  the  German  leaven  is  to 
work. 

All  the  problems  of  life  are  treated  in  the 
same  systematic,  machine-like  way.  Poverty, 
old  age,  unemployment  are  dealt  with  rigidly 
and  in  the  mass.  They  are  dealt  with  effec- 
tively, to  all  outward  appearance,  but  inhu- 
manly. 

This  inhumanity  peeps  out  everywhere  in  the 
everyday  life  of  Germany.  It  has  blazed  forth 
in  the  supreme  trial  of  war.  A  position  can  be 
taken,  say  the  German  Army  theorists,  in  two 
days  by  the  expenditure  of  50,000  men.  It  could 
be  taken  in  a  week  by  the  loss  of  one-third  as 
many.     The  time  is  worth  it,  there   are   still 


What  the  Kaiser  Thinks  of  the  Germans     113 

enough  men   when  those  are  lost;   therefore 
spend  the  men. 

On  this  equation  of  material  result  with  hu- 
man life,  human  suffering,  and  human  effort,  all 
the  schemes  of  the  Kaiser  are  based.  At  the 
end  of  twenty-five  years  of  his  reign,  he  re- 
viewed the  progress  of  Germany  during  that 
period,  and  was  justly  proud  of  the  accomplish- 
ment. He  said  this  had  been  done  by  Germany, 
by  the  aid  of  God,  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
Kaiser.  But  he  said  no  word  to  show  that  he 
realised  that  Germans  had  done  this  by  suffer- 
ing and  long  toil  and  ceaseless  effort,  by  de- 
privation and  tireless  energy,  by  sacrificing  the 
present  for  the  future. 

''He  regards  his  people  as  children  not  yet 
of  age, ' '  complained  Ludwig  Gurlitt.  He  would 
have  been  more  accurate  had  he  said  the  Em- 
peror regarded  his  people  as  so  much  plastic  ma- 
terial, to  be  shaped  to  his  will.  In  the  big 
things,  this  habit  has  converted  Germany  into  a 
highly  effective  machine,  producing  remarkable 
results.  In  the  smaller  things,  it  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  consequences  that  are  both  tragic  and 
comical.  The  broad  aspects  of  modern  Ger- 
many have  been  treated  in  many  recent  books 
with  a  fullness  and  accuracy  that  should  make 


114  The  Real  Kaiser 

them  familiar  to  the  general  reader  in  this  coun- 
try. But  some  of  the  small  things  have  worked 
out  in  a  way  that  is  very  interesting  and  amus- 
ing. 

The  Kaiser  did  not  like  the  table  manners  of 
his  people,  and  set  out  to  improve  them.  He 
issued  a  set  of  instructions :  not  to  tuck  a  servi- 
ette under  the  chin,  how  to  take  soup,  and  so 
forth.  Of  course  this  was  published  far  and 
wide  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  to  the  vast  an- 
noyance of  the  great  proportion  of  Germans 
whose  manners  are  beyond  such  reproach  at 
table.  The  Kaiser  had  imposed  on  the  whole  of 
his  people  a  reputation  which  was  only  earned 
by  a  part. 

Beside,  the  effect  desired  was  not  produced. 
Many  young  Germans  are  as  correct  about  such 
things  as  are  the  people  of  any  other  country. 
But  Germans,  when  they  pass  middle  age,  get 
slacker  than, the  folk  of  other  lands ;  possibly  be- 
cause they  are  led  such  a  hard  life  when  they  are 
young.  They  want  to  be  gemuethlich,  comfort- 
able, easy-going;  and  no  rules  of  the  Kaiser 
will  prevent  them.  That  is  the  reason  that 
when  a  stranger  enters  the  Kaiser  Keller,  or 
Kempinsky's,  or  any  other  of  the  great  barns 
they  call  restaurants  in  Berlin,  he  is  at  a  loss  to 


What  the  Kaiser  Thinks  of  the  Germans     115 

account  for  the  labial,  lapping  noise  that  is  so 
audible,  until  he  realises  that  it  signifies  the  Ger- 
man assimilation  of  soup. 

The  Kaiser  also  issued  a  sumptuary  edict  pre- 
scribing what  clothes  were  to  be  worn,  and  the 
exact  use  of  evening  dress.  It  called  the  atten- 
tion of  the  whole  world  to  things  about  German 
manners  that  most  outsiders  would  never  have 
known,  and  angered  all  the  Germans  who  are 
correct  about  such  things.  His  edict  certainly 
made  a  difference,  but  did  not  atfect  the  large 
cultured  class,  who  are  neither  conventional  nor 
Bohemian. 

When  he  came  to  the  classes,  and  applied  to 
them  his  mass  treatment,  the  Kaiser  blundered 
more  painfully  still.  His  views  about  most 
things  are  sound  and  admirably  expressed,  but 
he  could  not  help  lumping  the  people  who  did 
not  require  them  with  those  who  needed  them 
most.  He  treated  artists,  sculptors,  musicians 
and  actors  in  the  mass,  and  bitterly  antagonised 
the  individual. 

He  is  particularly  fond  of  statues,  and  has 
them  made  by  the  score.  The  Sieges  Allee  in 
the  Berlin  Tiergarten  is  an  evidence  of  this 
taste ;  it  was  all  done  at  his  own  expense.  Those 
statues  were  the  work  of  a  variety  of  artists,  but 


116  The  Real  Kaiser 

the  Kaiser  did  not  desire  that  any  of  them 
should  be  better  than  the  others.  Uniformity 
of  treatment  was  his  avowed  object,  and  it  can 
be  said  that  none  of  those  statues  is  any  worse 
or  better,  as  an  object  of  art,  than  its  fellows. 
But  the  effect  on  the  artists  themselves  can  be 
imagined. 

As  a  theatrical  manager,  he  has  lumped  actors 
as  a  class,  and  resents  the  fact  that  some  of 
those  he  wants  for  his  theatres  prefer  to  play  to 
American  audiences,  where  discrimination  in 
values  and  in  salaries  can  be  assured.  As  an 
art  patron,  he  takes  much  the  same  view  of  art- 
ists and  pictures.  And  these  things  serve  to  ac- 
count for  the  opinion  of  the  Kaiser  held  by  the 
large  professional  class  of  Germany. 

At  one  time  the  Kaiser  resented  this  opinion 
as  the  blackest  ingratitude.  '*!  have  suffered 
much  ingratitude  from  artists,"  he  complained 
to  Satzmann,  ''although  I  have  tried  to  create 
for  them  a  good  position.  I  have  treated  them 
to  good  prices." 

More  recently,  however,  he  has  ignored  their 
criticism,  and  taken  his  own  way,  with  a  lofty 
scorn  that  has  something  regally  magnificent 
about  it.  He  is  quite  sure  that  he  knows  best, 
in  art,  as  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  de- 


What  the  Kaiser  Thinks  of  the  Germans     117 

velopment  of  Germany.  In  fact  there  are  no 
German  artists  to  be  considered,  only  German 
art. 

Not  very  long  ago  there  was  a  competition 
among  German  architects  for  the  design  of  the 
new  German  embassy  at  Washington.  A  jury, 
including  Herr  von  Jagow,  Foreign  Minister, 
Count  Bernstorff,  American  Ambassador,  and  a 
number  of  leading  German  architects  was  con- 
stituted to  judge  the  270  designs  submitted. 
They  awarded  the  prize  to  a  design  by  Herr 
Moehring.  This  design  did  not  please  the 
Kaiser,  who  said  it  was  not  suitable  to  harmon- 
ise with  the  architecture  of  Washington.  He 
also  rejected  the  other  270  designs,  and  ap- 
pointed Herr  von  Ihne,  the  Court  architect,  to 
attend  to  the  matter  properly.  That  meant  a 
design  in  which  the  ideas  of  the  Kaiser  would 
be  fully  prominent. 

More  recently  still,  he  had  plans  made  for  a 
gigantic  new  Royal  opera  house  in  Berlin,  to 
cost  over  £1,000,000.  The  designs  did  not 
please  many  people,  including  the  Chief  Burgo- 
master of  Berlin,  and  objections  were  raised. 
They  were  waived  aside  by  William,  with  the  re- 
mark that,  as  he  was  to  pay  the  piper,  he  was  en- 
titled to  call  his  own  tune.     The  retort  that  the 


118  The  Real  Kaiser 

municipality  of  Berlin  would  have  to  bear  nearly 
one-half  the  cost  passed  by  him  unheeded.  It  is 
his  way  of  showing  what  he  thinks  of  the  Ger- 
mans; they  simply  don't  know. 

Of  course,  he  has  his  own  way.  There  was  a 
building  in  one  of  the  suburbs  of  Berlin,  which 
was  surmounted  by  a  sort  of  lightning  rod,  at 
the  top  of  which  was  a  huge  gilt  circle,  like  a 
magnified  motor-sign.  It  was  explained  that 
the  plans  of  the  building  were  submitted  to  the 
Kaiser,  and  returned  by  him  with  a  mark  of 
this  description  projecting  from  the  corner 
tower;  a  stroke  and  then  a  circle.  Nobody 
knew  what  it  meant,  and  nobody  cared  to  ask 
him  at  the  time. 

The  addition  was  accordingly  made,  in  sup- 
posed regard  to  his  wish,  and  very  odd  it  looked. 
Some  intelligent  official  saw  it  when  it  was  fin- 
ished, and  succeeded  in  finding  out  what  the 
Kaiser  had  really  wanted.  It  turned  out  that 
he  thought  the  tower  too  squat,  and  had  marked 
the  plan  for  a  higher  tower. 

The  question  of  the  moment  was,  who  was  go- 
ing to  pay  for  the  necessary  alteration,  and 
whether  it  could  be  executed  before  the  Kaiser 
came  that  way. 


What  the  Kaiser  Thinks  of  the  Germans     119 

Contempt — it  is  nothing  else — on  the  side  of 
the  Kaiser,  and  a  bitter  resentment  of  it  on  the 
part  of  thinking  Germans,  have  caused  the  Em- 
peror and  his  subjects  to  drift  very  far  apart. 
One  result  has  been  a  distrust  of  his  people  by 
the  Kaiser. 

One  day  I  stood  with  a  very  loyal  German  in 
the  Tiergarten,  and  watched  the  Kaiser  ride  by. 
He  was  by  himself,  in  front  of  his  attendant 
suite,  and  he  rode  a  great  black  charger.  The 
reins  were  gathered  in  his  left  hand,  and  he 
looked  at  the  gazing  people  with  a  bitter  look 
of  despite.  His  right  hand  moved  restlessly 
about,  as  my  friend  pointed  out.  *'He  is  ready 
to  grip  his  revolver,"  was  the  explanation. 
**He  always  carries  one,  and  he  is  always  like 
that  in  Berlin."  That  statement  is  generally 
believed. 

Now  the  Kaiser  has  had  a  remarkable 
immunity  from  attempts  upon  his  life.  Once, 
early  in  his  reign,  bombs  were  sent  to  him  and 
to  his  Chancellor  of  the  moment,  Caprivi ;  a  mys- 
terious affair  which  has  never  yet  been  ex- 
plained. But,  otherwise,  the  record  of  attempts 
upon  the  Kaiser  includes  only  a  few  lunatic  acts 
of  no  importance  or  significance. 


120  The  Beat  Kaiser 

Whatever  may  be  the  faults  of  the  German 
people,  they  do  not  readily  stoop  to  the  crime  of 
political  assassination. 

Their  faults  are  many,  but  to  understand  their 
relations  with  their  Emperor  and  with  the  out- 
side world,  a  closer  inspection  of  their  achieve- 
ments becomes  necessary. 


CHAPTER  XII 

WHAT  IS  GERMANY? 

"Wherever  the  German  eagle  has  thrust  his  talons  into  a 
country,  that  country  is  German,  and  will  remain  German." 
— The  Kaiser. 

What  is  Germany,  and  who  are  tlie  Germans  ? 
.  The  question  is  not  so  easy  to  answer  as,  on 
the  face  of  it,  it  ought  to  be.  As  I  write,  the 
German  Empire  includes  a  liberal  slice  of  Po- 
land, a  whole  province  of  Denmark,  and  the 
French  provinces  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  language,  race  and  customs 
count  in  the  making  of  a  nation,  there  are  in 
Europe  some  twenty  million  Germans  who  live 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  Empire.  This  in- 
cludes the  very  genuine  Germans,  who  inhabit 
the  German  cantons  of  Switzerland,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  the  greater  part  of  Austria 
proper. 

When  I  have  visited  Germany — and  before 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  I  did  so  frequently, 
and  for  fairly  long  periods — I  always  returned 

121 


122  TJie  Real  Kaiser 

impressed  with  a  sneaking  fear  that  I  and  all 
my  fellow-Britons  were  Germans  too.  Very  de- 
generate and  uncultured  Germans,  of  course, 
but  Germans  of  sorts.  If  I  was  not  entirely 
convinced,  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  learned 
doctors  and  writers,  who  never  fail  to  impress 
on  the  friendly  Englishman  his  share  in  the 
glories  of  Germany.  They  mean  it,  in  a  very 
friendly  way. 

I  will  not  trouble  my  readers  here,  or  here- 
after, with  a  recapitulation  of  all  the  ingenious 
arguments  which  lie  behind  the  German  claim 
that  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  races,  and  the  Scan- 
dinavians and  Dutch  as  well,  are  but  branches  of 
the  race  of  which  the  Germans  are  the  bright 
and  shining  examples.  I  could  repeat  them,  if 
I  wished;  for  I  have  heard  them  so  often,  and 
at  such  wearisome  length.  I  refrain,  but  I 
would  like  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  they  are 
genuinely  and  firmly  held.  There  is  no  more 
ardent  upholder  of  this  belief  than  the  Kaiser 
himself. 

Yet  the  German  Empire  is  the  newest  of  the 
great  powers,  much  newer  than  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  little  older  than  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  There  was  something 
like   a  United  Germany  in  the   early  Middle 


\ 


._i. 


What  is  Germany?  123 

Ages,  as  the  result  of  the  statesmanship  and 
warlike  skill  of  that  great  monarch,  Charle- 
magne. But,  owing  to  the  unfortunate  geo- 
graphical position  of  Germany,  it  disintegrated ; 
just  as  the  fortunate  position  of  the  British 
Isles  permitted  the  gradual  welding  of  the  four 
little  kingdoms  and  the  mixed  races  dwelling 
there  into  the  British  nation,  mother  of  one 
great  Empire. 

One  glance  at  the  map  will  reveal  much  of  the 
misfortune  of  Germany's  geographical  position. 
The  Empire  presents  a  portion  of  its  frontier 
to  almost  every  European  nation,  and  has  less 
of  seacoast  in  proportion  to  its  area  than  any 
other  maritime  power.  Contrast  the  British 
Islands,  with  no  frontier  to  defend  against  a 
neighbour,  and  an  enormous  extent  of  coastline 
in  proportion  to  its  area.  Germany  was 
severely  handicapped  in  the  very  dawn  of  civili- 
sation. 

Pressure  of  unfriendly  neighbours,  and  that 
vast  religious  schism  known  as  the  Protestant 
Reformation,  divided  the  Germany  of  Charle- 
magne into  nearly  three  hundred  little  warring 
States  and  principalities.  Each  was  ruled  by  a 
boorish,  illiterate  princeling.  Each  contributed 
representatives  to  a   sort  of  Parliament — the 


124  The  Real  Kaiser 

Diet  of  the  Empire — in  which  the  spiritual 
power  had  a  large  share  of  representation. 

It  required  more  than  a  common  force  to  ex- 
tinguish the  bulk  of  these  petty  principalities, 
and  to  weld  the  rest  into  the  fabric  of  Empire 
we  now  know  as  Germany.  The  force  was  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  it  was  applied  by  the 
warrior  State  of  Prussia.  From  Frederick  the 
Great  to  Wilhelm  II,  the  kings  of  Prussia  have 
been,  without  exception,  warrior  kings.  They 
have  known  but  one  argument,  and  have  always 
kept  that  by  their  sides,  sharpened  and  ready 
for  use. 

The  Union  of  1871  was  only  achieved  by  the 
free  use  of  that  argument,  whereby  the  absolute 
dominance  of  Prussia  was  ensured.  Austria 
was  forced  out,  just  as  Bavaria  and  Baden  were 
constrained  to  join.  All  the  little  "one-horse" 
States  were  only  too  glad  to  be  taken  in,  and 
the  horde  of  princes,  who  had  no  existing  States 
to  rule,  were  soothed  by  being  assigned  a  special 
top  division  in  the  German  aristocracy  all  to 
themselves. 

At  this  time,  in  1871,  even  Prussia  was  tired 
of  fighting.  There  was  a  considerable  collec- 
tion of  war  booty,  in  addition  to  the  looted  terri- 
tory, to  be  divided  among  the  victors.     Bavaria 


What  is  Germany?  125 

and  Baden  had  been  mulcted  in  considerable 
sums  for  the  unresisted  occupation  of  their  ter- 
ritory by  the  Prussians.  Austria  had  paid  a 
heavy  indemnity  as  the  price  of  peace  from  the 
Seven  Weeks'  War.  And  France  had  con- 
tributed £200,000,000.  The  wide  Prussian  maw 
was  full,  for  even  Bismarck  admitted  that  Prus- 
sia was  "satiated"  by  its  gains. 

In  the  new  Union,  Prussia  was  supreme.  To 
the  stay-at-home  Englislunan  to-day,  Prussia 
stands  for  Germany,  though  he  will  tell  you  that 
he  knows  well  that  there  are  other  kinds  of  Ger- 
mans. It  is  curious  to  see  the  effect  produced 
upon  Britons  who  visit  Germany ;  their  impres- 
sions varying,  of  course,  according  to  the  dis- 
trict visited.  The  legend  of  the  kindly  German 
comes  from  Rhineland  and  the  South ;  the  Ger- 
man boor  is  reported  by  the  stranger  to  Berlin 
and  East  Prussia ;  while  the  polish  of  the  Ger- 
man business  or  professional  life  cannot  fail  to 
impress  the  visitor  to  any  of  the  towns  of  West 
Germany. 

In  a  word,  the  Pmssian  is  fat  and  fierce,  the 
Bavarian  is  fat  and  jolly,  and  the  Hamburger 
is  fat  and  civil.  And  there  are  other  kinds  of 
Germans,  all  very  fat  and  energetic. 

In  1871  Germany,  with  its  40,000,000  people. 


126  The  Real  Kaiser 

was  a  poor  country.  Its  assets  as  a  business 
concern  were  nothing  very  remarkable. 

There  was  a  lot  of  good  agricultural  land, 
tilled  with  great  industry,  which  until  then  had 
been  the  mainstay  of  the  country  in  time  of 
peace.  The  mineral  resources  were  certainly 
considerable.  Good  coal  and  iron  mean  a  great 
deal,  and  Germany  had  plenty  of  these,  and  fine 
timber  as  well.  But  she  had  no  seaports,  no 
shipping,  no  gi-eat  industries. 

There  was,  however,  a  good  deal  of  other 
people 's  money ;  more  money,  in  fact,  than  there 
had  ever  been  in  Germany  before.  And  they 
put  it  to  a  good  use,  the  development  of  manu- 
facturing industry. 

When  I  have  been  accused  of  being  an  in- 
ferior sort  of  German,  I  have  liked  to  go  into 
a  German  factory,  and  note  how  much  modern 
industrial  Germany  owes  to  England.  I  like 
to  note  how  much  clumsier  the  German  worker 
is  than  the  corresponding  English  worker,  with 
his  generations  of  inherited  skill.  And  I  reflect 
on  the  poor  position  Germany  would  occupy  to- 
day, if  it  were  not  for  machinery,  and  for  Great 
Britain. 

All  their  beautiful  machinery  grew  out  of  the 
British  models  they  imported  to  copy  in  bulk. 


What  is  Germany?  127 

They  imported  British  workmen  to  show  them 
how  it  was  to  be  used,  and  English  goods,  on 
the  imitation  of  which  they  exercised  their  pren- 
tice hands.  I  find  many  Britons,  who  ought  to 
know  better,  who  honestly  believe  that  the  main 
output  of  the  German  factories  are  knives  that 
will  not  cut,  guns  that  burst  when  they  are  fired, 
and  textiles  woven  from  slioddy.  They  will  not 
believe  me  when  I  tell  them  that  in  that  branch 
of  the  trade  war,  Birmingham,  Sheffield,  and 
Yorkshire  have  recovered  their  lost  laurels. 
.  There  is  one  man  in  every  big  German  fac- 
tory who  interests  me  beyond  all  others.  He 
may  hold  some  University  degree  or  other;  he 
invariably  has  the  degree  of  one  of  the  big 
technical  High  Schools  which  are  a  feature  of 
Germany's  educational  system.  In  some  cases 
he  may  be  found  collaborating  with  a  specialist 
in  chemical  research,  or  some  other  highly  quali- 
fied scientist.  But  my  man  is  the  man  of  the  la- 
bour-saving machines.  He  has  them  in  theory, 
where  the  Briton  has  them  in  practice  only. 
He  knows  just  what  a  special  machine  will  cost 
to  make,  and  work  before  it  is  even  designed, 
save  in  the  rough. 

It  is  required,  for  instance,  to  make   some 
small  article  of  metal  in  large  quantities,  and 


128  The  Real  Kaiser 

the  man  wlio  requires  the  article  in  question 
asks  for  quotation  of  prices  from  England  and 
Germany.  For  the  manufacture  of  a  special 
automatic  machine  must  be  constructed.  The 
English  manufacturer  knows  roughly  what  kind 
of  machine  will  be  required,  and  the  cost  of 
articles  of  about  the  same  size  and  similar  ma- 
terial. He  allows  a  margin  all  round  for  fail- 
ures, though  the  chances  are  he  will  get  the 
machine  very  nearly  right  at  the  first  trial.  And 
he  quotes  with  a  safety  margin. 

In  Germany  the  matter  is  put  in  the  hands 
of  my  technical  expert,  who  proceeds  to  design 
the  machine  on  paper.  There  is  no  need  to 
experiment  when  his  work  is  done ;  he  has  esti- 
mated all  the  costs,  labour,  material,  plant,  and 
all  the  rest  of  it.  The  German  quotation  for 
the  work  is  almost  invariably  lower  than  the 
British,  and  the  quality  of  the  article  just  as 
good. 

This  capacity  for  thoroughness,  for  detail, 
for  harnessing  science  to  technics,  has  been  one 
of  Germany's  two  main  assets  in  the  struggle 
for  industrial  development.  The  other  has 
been  the  tireless  energy  of  the  German  worker. 
It  is  not  that  the  German  loves  work,  as  one 
sees   members   of  the   Anglo-Saxon   race  love 


What  is  Germany?  129 

it,  especially  in  the  newer  countries.  But  the 
German  knows  he  has  to  work  hard  to  make 
both  ends  meet.  In  one  of  his  books,  Mr.  H. 
Gr.  Wells  describes  a  man  who  had  '*a  sort  of 
dismal  grit. ' '  That  is  the  quality  that  the  Ger- 
man worker  has  brought  to  bear  on  the  task  of 
making  Germany  a  great  trading  nation. 

Every  man  who  worked  with  his  hands  has 
paid  his  part  of  the  price  of  the  achievement. 
Life  is  made  wretched  for  the  poor  in  Germany 
by  the  protective  tariff.  Bismarck  flattered 
himself  that  the  people  would  not  know  how 
much  they  were  paying  in  indirect  taxation. 
Even  he  lived  to  discover  his  mistake,  but  it 
is  of  recent  years  that  the  burden  has  been 
heaviest  on  the  worker.  For  the  preservation 
of  the  passing  agricultural  industry,  a  heavy 
duty  lies  on  imported  food.  Nor  are  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  German  factories  as  cheap  to  Ger- 
mans as  to  the  outside  world.  The  German 
manufacturer  often  has  two  prices,  one  for  the 
home  market  and  one  for  the  foreign  consumer. 
He  takes  advantage  of  the  home  protective 
tariff  to  squeeze  a  little  more  out  of  his  own 
people,  so  that  he  may  charge  a  little  less  in 
the  open  markets  of  the  world.  The  ingenious 
process  is  known  as  "dumping,"  and  is  claimed 


130  The  Real  Kaiser 

by  Germans  as  the  invention  of  a  German  busi- 
ness scientist.     Probably  it  is. 

Bear  in  mind,  too,  that  every  one  of  these 
Germans  has  given  two  of  the  best  years  of  his 
life  to  the  war  machine.  In  that  period  he  may 
have  gained  the  faculty  of  order  and  organisa- 
tion, which  has  contributed  so  much  to  German 
industrial  success.  But  the  individual  is  con- 
scious of  a  great  disadvantage  when  he  com- 
pares himself  with  the  young  Briton,  who  is 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  business  career  at 
a  period  when  the  German  is  drilling. 

The  German  is  acutely  conscious  of  the  dis- 
advantages with  which  he  has  to  contend.  He 
feels  the  incidence  of  protection,  he  is  alive  to 
the  geographical  handicap  of  Germany,  he 
grudges  the  two  years  he  sacrifices  to  mili- 
tarism, and  he  never  ceases  to  think  about  these 
things.  It  is  in  this  mental  harping  on  his 
grievance  that  one  finds  the  cause  of  the  very 
general  feeling,  which  Prince  von  Biilow  rightly 
describes  as  the  key  to  German  character.  That 
feeling  is  envy. 

This  envy  is  noticeable,  even  above  the  con- 
ceit which  is  another  characteristic  of  the  Ger- 
man mentality.  May  I  say  that,  bitter  as  it  is, 
the  envy  is  an  intelligible  envy;  that  gross  as 


What  is  Germany?  131 

it  is  in  many  instances,  the  conceit  is  a  pardon- 
able conceit.  I  am  one  of  the  English  who  can 
take  off  my  hat  to  the  Gemian  people  for  their 
amazing  performance,  in  the  teeth  of  adverse 
fate,  and  admit  that  no  other  nation  in  the  world 
could  have  done  it. 

My  readiness  to  admit  the  fact  has  brought 
upon  me  many  a  discussion  that  I  did  not  alto- 
gether enjoy.  The  very  best  Germans  are  not 
tactful  in  their  choice  of  subjects  for  discussion 
with  friendly  English,  nor  in  the  method  chosen 
f.or  enforcing  their  arguments.  The  proofs  of 
Germany's  success  in  industrialism  are  in  the 
bluebooks,  and  the  German  statistical  books 
are  usually  a  j^ear  ahead  of  our  own  with  fig- 
ures, and  a  generation  ahead  in  accuracy.  The 
German  business  man  has  the  figures  by  heart, 
and  reels  them  off.  A  shocking  comparison  is 
instituted  between  German  and  British  progress 
in  the  race  for  the  world's  markets. 

The  peroration  comes  in  thunderous  German 
sentences.  If  the  Germans  could  do  so  much 
with  a  poor  country  like  Geraiany,  what  might 
they  not  have  done  with  Great  Britain.  With 
Great  Britain,  the  most  Westerly  of  the  nations 
and  of  the  Old  World,  and  almost  the  most 
Easterly  of  the  nations  of  the  New.     Great 


132  The  Real  Kaiser 

Britain,  the  country  preserved  from  invasion 
by  the  rampart  of  the  Ocean,  with  dozens  of 
fine  ports  for  shipping,  with  wide  colonial  ter- 
ritories to  pour  their  raw  material  into  her  mar- 
kets, with  shipping  ready  to  hand,  and  a  coaling 
station  at  every  remote  corner  of  the  Seven 
Seas. 

Envy,  conceit,  and  worse  things  peep  from 
behind  the  constant  reiteration  of  the  question. 

Sometimes,  I  allow  myself  to  think  what  the 
Germans  would  really  have  done  with  Great 
Britain.     And  I  shudder. 


CHAPTER  Xlll 

THE  KAISER  AND  WORLD-POLITICS 

"We  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  must  show  ourselves 
worthy  of  our  great  destiny." — The  Kaiser. 

On  more  than  one  of  his  visits  to  England, 
the  Kaiser  met  the  late  Mr.  Chamberlain,  for 
whom  he  conceived  a  great  admiration.  I  have 
seen  one  of  the  Kaiser's  Press-cutting  slips,  on 
Tv;hich  is  pasted  an  extract  from  Chamberlain's 
fighting  speeches.  On  the  margin  is  scrawled, 
in  the  Kaiser's  handwriting,  the  comment: 
"Marvellous  Joe!     He  has  a  warrior  soul." 

That  warrior  soul  is  perhaps  not  too  far  re- 
moved from  our  stirring  life  to  take  comfort 
in  the  fact  that  one  of  his  chance  fighting 
phrases  has  become  the  battle  cry  of  the  men 
of  England,  struggling  for  freedom  and  civilisa- 
tion. He  would  surely  like  to  know  that  when 
the  shrapnel  of  the  German  bursts  thickest  over 
the  trenches,  a  brave  young  voice  may  often 
be  heard  crying  the  old  defiant  question,  ''Are 
we  downhearted?"  and  provoking  a  sturdy 
chorus  of  British  "Noes"  that  greatly  puzzles 
our  French  Allies. 

133 


134  The  Real  Kaiser 

Mr.  Chamberlain's  Colonial  tour,  and  the  re- 
discovery by  him  of  the  British  Empire,  set 
the  Kaiser  dreaming,  and  caused  him  to  revive 
the  almost  forgotten  scheme  for  a  German  Co- 
lonial Empire. 

For  the  Kaiser,  about  this  time,  was  setting 
himself  to  the  solution  of  the  great  German 
problem,  as  propounded  by  the  saner  of  his 
many  professors,  such  as  Dr.  Bohrbach.  This 
problem  can  be  propounded  in  a  few  words.  At 
the  time  of  the  Union,  Germany  had  a  popula- 
tion of  40,000,000,  and  being  then  an  agricul- 
tural nation,  produced  all  the  food  it  required. 
At  the  end  of  the  century,  Germany  had  be- 
come an  industrial  nation,  and  was  still  pro- 
ducing only  enough  food  for  40,000,000  people. 
In  the  meantime  the  population  had  increased 
to  55,000,000,  and  was  increasing  at  the  rate  of 
800,000  a  year.  The  population  is  now  (1914) 
65,000,000,  and  the  annual  increase  is  about 
1,000,000.    ' 

Now  Germany  must  buy  food  for  the  odd  20,- 
000,000  or  so,  and  has  nothing  to  give  in  ex- 
change, except  the  work  of  Gorman  hands.  It 
has  had  to  import  raw  material,  and  convert 
that  into  manufactured  goods,  finding  foreign 
markets  for  sufficient  of  these  manufactures  to 


The  Kaiser  and  World-Politics      135 

feed  the  millions  for  whom  the  local  agricul- 
turalists cannot  grow  food.  Each  year  these 
foreign  markets  had  to  be  wider  and  richer  for 
Germany.  That  is  the  stark  problem,  stripped 
of  all  consideration  of  money-getting,  as  pro- 
pounded by  Dr.  Eohrbach. 

Another  ingenious  professor,  I  think  it  was 
Dr.  Fuchs,  illustrated  the  problem  by  a  parable 
and  a  diagram  which  caught  the  imagination 
of  the  Kaiser.  For  the  purpose  of  this  illus- 
tration, Germany  was  represented  as  a  build- 
ing of  many  stories,  the  bottom  or  foundation 
story  being  Agriculture.  On  this  foundation 
the  edifice  of  German  prosperity  had  to  be 
erected.  The  story  representing  industry  was 
bigger  than  the  bottom  one,  jutting  out  on  all 
sides  around  it,  and  supported  by  precarious- 
looking  props.  The  problem  of  Professor 
Number  Two  was  this: — Suppose  some  evil- 
minded  person  came  and  kicked  away  these 
props,  what  would  become  of  the  whole  build- 
ing? 

Other  professors,  less  gentle  than  Dr.  Eohr- 
bach, were  stating  the  problem  in  more  violent 
terms,  and  were  suggesting  solutions  by  no 
means  peaceable.  But  on  the  parable  of  the 
overhanging    story    the    Kaiser    undoubtedly 


186  The  Real  Kaiser 

founded  his  doctrine  of  Welt-Politik  for  the 
German  Empire.  He  stated  it  shortly  and  suc- 
cinctly in  one  of  his  speeches  made  at  the 
time — 

''The  German  Empire  has  become  a  world- 
Empire.  Everywhere,  in  far-away  parts  of  the 
globe,  live  thousands  of  our  compatriots.  Ger- 
man goods,  German  science,  German  manufac- 
tures cross  the  ocean.  The  value  of  that  which 
Germany  has  on  the  sea  amounts  to  thousands 
of  millions." 

The  claim  is  not  an  unreasonable  one,  and 
the  justification  of  Germany's  powerful  navy, 
built  to  protect  her  shipping  and  her  wide  world 
interests,  is  not  difficult.  But  neither  navy  nor 
mercantile  marine  would  serve  to  divert  to  Ger- 
many the  valuable  raw  material  destined  by 
its  growers  for  other  parts  of  the  world. 

A  decade  before  Germany  had  been  colony- 
mad.  The  mania  for  picking  up  and  annexing 
stray  portions  of  the  world  had  bitten  the  peo- 
ple and  its  rulers,  though  Bismarck,  who  ini- 
tiated the  German  colonial  regime,  had  not 
much  faith  in  its  value.  The  Colonies  had 
proved  expensive ;  they  had  cost  Gennany  quite 
£100,000,000  in  all,  and  Reichstag  and  people 
had  lost  heart  and  interest  in  them. 


.iL. 


The  Kaiser  and  World-Politics      137 

But  Mr.  Chamberlain's  new  colonial  policy 
and  the  important  stand  made  by  our  oversea 
Dominions  during  the  Boer  War,  had  recalled 
the  wandering  attention  of  the  Kaiser  to  the 
German  Colonies.  He  cast  about  for  a  Ger- 
man Chamberlain,  to  breathe  life  into  the  dead 
bones  of  the  German  Colonial  Empire;  and  he 
thought  he  would  find  him  from  among  the  busi- 
ness men  with  whom  he  was  in  touch.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  a  business  man,  no  mere  bu- 
reaucrat or  aristocrat,  and  to  the  ranks  of  the 
business  men  the  Kaiser  turned.  There  he 
found  Herr  Dernburg. 

Dernburg,  a  banker  with  a  strong  strain  of 
Jewish  blood,  gave  up  business  interests  worth 
something  like  £20,000  a  year  to  answer  the  Em- 
peror's call.  He  threw  himself  at  the  task  after 
the  fashion  of  Chamberlain,  and  by  his  fiery 
speeches  throughout  the  country  won  an  elec- 
tion on  the  question  of  revitalizing  the  Colonies. 
His  colonial  regime  lasted  nearly  four  years, 
terminating  in  failure  in  1910.  He  has  left  be- 
hind him  some  marvellous  reports  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  German  Colonies  and  the  debris 
of  a  struggle  with  German  bureaucracy  in 
which  he  was  badly  worsted.  He  stayed  long 
enough  to  hear  his  Colonies  summed  up  in  the 


138  The  Real  Kaiser 

Reichstag  in  one  scathing  sentence:  "Those 
that  are  fertile  are  not  healthy,  and  those  that 
are  healthy  are  not  fertile. ' ' 

His  downfall  represented  the  failure  of  a 
very  legitimate  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
Kaiser  to  solve  the  pressing  problem  repre- 
sented by  the  overhanging  story  in  the  German 
edifice.  It  occurred  not  a  year  before  the 
drama  arising  from  the  Agadir  incident,  and 
the  humiliation  inflicted  upon  the  Kaiser  and 
his  ministers  by  French  and  British  diplomacy. 

The  effect  of  the  two  incidents,  following  in 
quick  succession,  upon  the  mind  of  the  Kaiser 
will  be  worthy  of  the  closest  examination.  The 
legitimate  development  of  the  colonies  already 
in  Germany's  possession  had  been  baulked, 
both  by  the  German  system  of  bureaucracy  and 
by  Dernburg's  failure  to  accomplish  a  task, 
probably  beyond  the  power  of  living  man. 
The  attempt  to  enforce  the  doctrine  of  world- 
politics  had  been  thwarted  by  the  clumsiness  of 
his  ministers,  and  the  unexpected  firmness  of 
two  of  the  powers  holding  a  far  larger  share 
of  that  "place  in  the  sun"  which  he  felt  was 
the  just  due  of  the  German  people. 

That  God  had  called  the  German  race  to  take 
not  only  a  place  in  the  sun,  but  the  foremost 


The  Kaiser  and  World-Politics      139 

place,  he  never  doubted.  ''Our  German  people 
will  be  the  granite  rock  on  which  Almighty  God 
will  complete  His  building  of  the  civilisation  of 
the  world,"  he  cried,  in  one  of  his  speeches. 
Meantime,  the  problem  of  finding  markets  was 
becoming  more  pressing,  the  supports  of  the 
overlapping  story  seemed  already  to  him  to 
totter.  His  dream  of  an  all-powerful  German 
Empire  was  more  of  a  dream  than  ever.  But 
he  continued  to  enunciate  it. 

"I  dream  of  an  Empire,  and  it  is  this:  The 
newly-born  German  Empire  must  possess  the 
confidence  of  everybody,  must  be  considered 
everywhere  as  a  quiet,  honest  and  peaceful 
neighbour;  and  if  some  day  in  the  future  a 
German  world-empire  is  spoken  of,  it  must  not 
be  based  on  the  conquests  of  the  sword,  but  on 
the  reciprocal  confidence  of  nations  united  for 
an  identical  end." 

His  professors — not  those  who  propound  the 
problems,  but  those  who  professed  to  answer 
them — had  long  before  decided  that  such  talk 
was  only  gefluegelte,  the  winged  words  of  the 
Kaiser,  empty  talk.  For  years  they  had  been 
feeding  the  inherent  German  envy  of  other 
races,  and  inquiring  why  Germany  should  al- 
ways remain  the  Cinderella  of  Europe.     They 


140  The  Real  Kaiser 

had  been  hinting  at  much  simpler  ways  of  cre- 
ating a  German  Colonial  Empire  than  trying  to 
transform  into  paradises  the  left-off  deserts  of 
luckier  and  less  deserving  races. 

Now  they  did  not  scruple  to  put  their  pro- 
posals into  the  very  plainest  of  language.  *  *  The 
time  is  at  hand,"  writes  the  learned  Dr.  Eom- 
mel  of  Leipsic,  ''when  the  five  poor  sons  of 
the  German  family,  allured  by  the  resources  and 
the  fertility  of  France,  will  easily  make  an  end 
of  the  solitary  son  of  the  French  family.  When 
a  growing  nation  borders  on  one  of  lesser  den- 
sity, which,  as  a  result,  creates  a  centre  of  de- 
pression, there  is  -formed  a  current,  known  in 
the  vernacular  as  an  invasion,  a  phenomenon  in 
which  law  and  morals  are,  for  the  time  being, 
laid  on  one  side. 

"The  land  between  the  Vosges  and  the  Py- 
renees was  not  made  by  the  Almighty  just  in 
order  that  38,000,000  Frenchmen  should  vege- 
tate there  without  growing,  when  100,000,000 
Germans  could  live  and  flourish  there  so  well, 
according  to  the  divine  law." 

That  is  by  no  means  a  rare  or  extreme  ex- 
pression of  modern  German  thought.  It  is  only 
what  has  been  openly  written  and  said  in  Ger- 
many for  some  years.     Sometimes  it  is  put  for- 


The  Kaiser  and  World-Politics      141 

ward  as  an  interesting  theory,  and  serves  to 
affront  an  Englishman  who  is  too  indifferent 
to  care  about  the  crack-brained  theories  of  crazy- 
professors.  But  it  is  now  the  main  branch  of 
the  flourishing  tree  of  Welt-Politik. 

Dr.  Rommel's  words  are  directed  to  France, 
but  we  can  also  claim  a  share  of  the  attentions 
of  the  professors  of  this  school.  There  is  one 
well-known  sentence  in  Bemhardi's  book,  on 
which  a  whole  host  of  kindred  speculations  are 
founded.     It  reads: — 

'  "In  all  times  the  right  of  conquest  by  war 
has  been  admitted.  It  may  be  that  a  growing 
people  cannot  win  colonies  from  uncivilised 
races,  and  yet  the  state  wishes  to  retain  the 
surplus  population  which  the  mother-country 
can  no  longer  feed.  Then  the  only  course  left 
is  to  acquire  the  necessary  territory  by  war. 
Thus  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  leads  in- 
evitably to  war,  and  the  conquest  of  foreign 
soil.  It  is  not  the  possessor  but  the  victor  who 
then  has  the  right.  The  threatened  people  will 
see  the  point  of  Goethe's  lines: 

"That  which  thoi;  did'st  mherit  from  thy  sires, 
In  order  to  possess  it  must  be  won." 

I  repeat  that  this  is  no  rare  outpouring  of 


142  The  Real  Kaiser 

German  "culture."  It  has  been  served  up,  less 
frankly  and  bluntly  perhaps,  in  every  state  of 
the  Empire  as  matter  for  scientific  discussion 
and  popular  consumption.  Much  of  it  was  writ- 
ten to  an  address  at  Potsdam,  and  the  good 
Dr.  Hamann  has  taken  care  that  it  reached 
its  mark  in  the  proper  shape,  and  at  the  suitable 
time. 

Who  can  judge  its  effect  upon  the  German 
Emperor?  He  was  fully  aware  of  the  pressing 
need  of  the  envious,  overworked  people  he  ruled. 
He  had  attempted  a  legitimate  development  of 
the  German  colonies,  and  failed.  He  had  tried 
the  effect  of  his  method  of  preserving  peace  by 
threatening  with  the  best  army  in  the  world, 
and  the  second  best  navy.  Again  he  had  failed 
to  get  his  way,  and  a  path  to  the  coveted  place 
in  the  sun. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  from  a  period  dating 
a  year  after  the  fall  of  Herr  Dernburg,  there 
was  more  of  Welt-Politik,  and  less  of  peace — 
and  more  ominous  still,  less  of  war — in  his 
speeches  than  ever  before. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  KAISER  AS  DIPLOMAT 

"Only  diplomats  consider  him  a  soldier,  and  only  soldiers 
consider  him  a  diplomat." — Henri  de  Neusanne. 

Theee  was  an  old  hatter  in  Berlin,  who  used 
to  tell  his  intimates  that  among  his  customers 
the  largest  head  was  possessed  by  Bismarck, 
and  the  smallest  by  his  royal  master,  Kaiser 
William  the  Great.  He  never  lived  to  take  the 
measure  of  a  royal  head  that  must  surely  have 
exceeded  in  girth  that  of  the  Iron  Chancellor 
himself. 

"He  will  be  his  own  Reichskanzler, "  Bis- 
marck had  said,  long  before  the  young  William 
came  to  the  throne.  He  was  to  prove  the  truth 
of  his  prophecy  in  his  own  person.  With  the 
advent  of  William  II,  the  parting  of  the  ways 
was  at  hand  for  Germany.  The  "old  course,'* 
so  long  and  successfully  pursued  by  Bismarck, 
was  coming  to  an  end;  the  "new  course,"  on 
which  Germany  was  to  embark  into  the  perilous 
waters  of  World-Politics,  was  near  at  hand. 

The  dramatic  break  between  veteran  Chan- 

143 


144  The  Real  Kaiser 

cellor  and  novice  Kaiser,  between  master  and 
pupil,  nevertheless  came  as  a  shock  to  Europe. 
The  event  which  led  to  it  was  the  summoning  of 
an  International  Socialist  Conference  to  Ber- 
lin, under  the  auspices  of  William  himself. 
This  was  hotly  opposed  by  the  wise  old  Chan- 
cellor, and  rightly,  as  events  were  to  prove. 
The  difference  of  opinion  led  to  a  terrible  scene 
between  Kaiser  and  Chancellor,  in  which  Bis- 
marck proffered  his  verbal  resignation. 

When  Bismarck  left  the  Kaiser,  William  at 
once  sent  an  aide-de-camp  after  him,  with  in- 
structions to  demand  the  resignation  in  writ- 
ing. The  answer -came  that  the  Kaiser  would 
receive  it  on  the  following  day.  William's  in- 
struction was  that  the  aide-de-camp  should  not 
leave  until  he  had  received  the  desired  docu- 
ment. Thus,  with  every  show  of  ignominy,  was 
terminated  the  career  of  the  real  founder  of  the 
German  Empire. 

The  principles  of  the  old  diplomacy  are  too 
well  known  to  need  enunciation  here.  Bismarck 
cut  off  any  Power  signalled  out  for  attack  from 
relations  with  other  powers,  likely  to  prove 
friendly  in  the  hour  of  need.  Then,  and  only 
when  the  isolation  was  complete,  the  fatal  blow 


The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat  145 

was  struck,  with  the  sudden  fury  to  which  the 
German  army  has  ever  been  trained. 

The  appointment  of  Caprivi  to  fill  the  place 
of  the  deposed  giant  confirmed  Bismarck's 
prophecy  to  the  full.  Caprivi  was  a  simple  sol- 
dier, with  no  training  in  the  diplomatic  schools 
of  Europe.  It  was  obvious  to  the  whole  world 
that  the  Kaiser  intended  to  be  his  own  Chan- 
cellor. The  true  history  of  those  days  has  been 
told,  but  never  yet  issued  to  the  world.  Bis- 
marck's own  account  of  all  that  passed  lies 
in  the  Bank  of  England,  ready  for  publication, 
when  all  who  are  mentioned  in  its  pages  shall 
have  passed  away. 

The  new  course  began  with  alarums  and  ex- 
cursions, alternate  promises  of  abiding  peace 
and  threats  of  instant  war.  For  some  years 
the  Chancelleries  of  Europe  marked  each  word 
of  the  new  Kaiser  with  apprehension,  but  grad- 
ually, by  continually  talking  on  every  conceiva- 
ble subject  under  the  sun,  William  dissipated 
the  general  apprehension. 

Hohenlohe  succeeded  Caprivi,  and  the  court- 
ier diplomat  was  no  less  a  figure-head  than 
the  soldier  who  preceded  him.  Hohenlohe  was 
followed   by   von   Buelow,   who    alone    of   the 


146  The  Real  Kaiser 

Kaiser's  Chancellors  is  worthy  to  be  mentioned 
in  the  same  breath  as  Bismarck.  Any  one  who 
wishes  to  understand  the  aims  and  aspirations 
of  modern  Germany  can  find  no  better  or  fairer- 
minded  presentation  of  them  than  in  his  book 
Imperial  Germany  *  an  excellent  translation  of 
which  can  be  procured. 

From  that  book,  written  from  the  German 
point  of  view,  may  be  gathered  an  accurate  idea 
of  the  reasons  which  prompted  German  policy 
at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  murder  of  three  German  missionaries  in 
China  afforded  an  opportunity  for  interference 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Far  East,  so  that  Germany 
was  able  to  demand  a  lease  of  Kiao-Chau,  at 
the  end  of  the  war  between  China  and  Japan, 
and  to  prevent  Japan  from  obtaining  a  settle- 
ment of  that  dispute  as  advantageous  as  would 
otherwise  have  been  the  case.  The  fruits  of 
that  policy  Germany  is  gathering  to-day. 

It  is  much  more  difficult  to  follow  the  diplo- 
macy of  the  Kaiser  where  it  more  nearly  con- 
cerns our  own  country.  It  is  the  fashion  of 
the  moment  to  attribute  to  him  a  desire  to  fol- 
low the  cynical  precepts  of  his  old  teacher  Bis- 
marck, and  to  set  down  his  every  act  to  delib- 
erate and  mischievous   design.     His   telegram 

*  Published  by  Dodd,  Mead  &  C!o. 


The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat  147 

to  Kruger,  after  the  Jameson  raid,  is  a  case  in 
point.  That  telegram,  dated  January  3,  1896, 
was  couched  as  follows: 

**I  express  to  you  my  since  rest  congratula- 
tions that  you  and  your  people  have  succeeded 
by  your  own  energ\'',  without  appealing  to  the 
aid  of  friendly  powers,  in  defeating  the  armed 
forces  which,  as  disturbers  of  the  peace,  in- 
vaded your  country,  in  re-establishing  order, 
and  in  protecting  the  independence  of  the  coun- 
try against  attack  from  without." 

'  How  far  that  message  was  dictated  by  im- 
pulse, and  how  far  by  a  deliberate  design  to 
embroil  this  country  with  other  nations  of  Eu- 
rope, can  only  be  settled  when  heads  are  cooler 
and  enmity  has  subsided.  It  certainly  stated 
only  what  the  rest  of  Europe  was  thinking. 
The  Kaiser  has  made  his  own  defence  to  the 
imputation  of  hostile  intent,  as  shall  presently 
be  seen. 

The  deepest  import  is  also  attached  to  his 
undertaking  given  to  Eussia  on  the  eve  of  the 
Kusso-Japanese  war.  It  is  argued  that  by 
promising  that  no  attack  should  be  made  by 
Geraiany  on  Eussia  while  that  country  was  en- 
gaged in  the  struggle  with  her  opponent  in  the 
Far  East,  he  egged  on  the  Czar  to  a  humiliation 


148  The  Real  Kaiser 

which  he  knew  was  in  store  for  him.  This  the 
Kaiser  has  categorically  denied.  On  the  mar- 
gin of  a  press  cutting  attributing  to  him  these 
designs,  he  wrote:  "This  is  a  lie.  God  keep 
me  from  ever  meddling  in  the  international  af- 
fairs of  foreign  countries." 

It  has  to  be  remembered  that  the  Kaiser  has 
consistently  expressed  himself  as  hostile  to  the 
yellow  races,  and  has  pronounced  his  opinion 
that  from  the  Far  East  is  to  come  the  greatest 
danger  to  civilisation.  His  policy,  as  far  as  it 
can  be  traced,  has  been  consistently  opposed  to 
the  power  of  Japan. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  attribute  to  him  a  fore- 
sight so  keen  as  to  grasp  the  coming  humilia- 
tion of  Eussia  at  the  hands  of  Japan,  is  to 
grant  him  a  wisdom  and  power  of  prediction 
that  was  not  shared  at  the  time  by  many,  even 
among  those  in  high  places.  In  other  matters 
he  has  not  shown  the  same  ability  to  foresee 
the  trend  of  events. 

His  interference  in  the  Morocco  question  had 
results  that  reached  even  farther.  That  in- 
terference was  based  on  the  German  Moroccan 
Commercial  treaty  of  1890,  and  on  the  treaty 
of  Madrid,  which  assigned  to  the  Powers  a  joint 
right  of  protection  over  Morocco.     Germany's 


The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat  149 

action  was  caused  by  an  arrangement  between 
France  and  Great  Britain,  made  in  1904, 
whereby  France  acknowledged  our  Authority 
in  Egypt,  while  we  recognised  French  policy  in 
regard  to  Morocco. 

In  1905  the  Kaiser  landed  at  Tangier,  and 
took  the  Sultan  of  Morocco  under  German  pro- 
tection. If  M.  Delcasse,  the  French  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  had  been  given  his  way, 
war  would  have  followed.  In  the  event,  the 
resignation  of  Delcasse  was  forced,  and  the 
affairs  of  Morocco  were  referred  for  settlement 
to  the  conference  of  Algeciras.  There,  with 
the  support  of  Austria,  Germany  succeeded  in 
limiting  the  influence  of  France  in  Morocco. 
The  Austrian  effort  was  acknowledged  in  one 
of  the  Kaiser's  famous  telegrams,  in  which  he 
praised  the  "brilliant  second"  Austria  had 
played,  and  promised  to  repay  the  good  turn. 
Later  he  was  to  redeem  the  promise  by  stand- 
ing by  ''in  shining  armour,"  while  Austria  ap- 
propriated the  Servian  provinces  of  Bosnia- 
Herzegovina. 

The  German  intervention  in  Morocco  was 
based  on  wider  considerations  than  German 
commercial  interests  in  that  country.  It  had 
its  ground  on  the  great  welding  force  of  Mo- 


150  The  Real  Kaiser 

hammedanism,  a  faith  professed  by  300,000,000 
human  beings,  all  possessed  with  common  in- 
terests. In  all  Mohammedan  countries  that 
were  accessible,  the  German  influence  was  at 
work,  and  especially  in  Turkey,  where  German 
policy  and  German  money  had  obtained  a  no- 
table concession,  the  right  to  build  a  railway 
across  Asia  Minor,  and  so  to  open  a  short  pas- 
sage from  Europe  to  Southern  Asia. 

These  were  exploits  in  the  world  of  diplo- 
macy on  which  the  Kaiser  and  his  Chancellor 
justly  prided  themselves.  But  they  had  the  ef- 
fect of  creating  what  Bismarck  had  always  suc- 
ceeded in  avoiding,  a  combination  of  great  and 
unfriendly  powers.  By  this  time  a  community 
of  interests  and  a  growing  sentiment  had  united 
France  and  Great  Britain  by  an  understand- 
ing, the  terms  of  w^hich  could  be  modified  to 
suit  circumstances  which  might  arise.  France 
was  allied  by  a  definite  treaty  with  Russia,  so 
that  Gemiany  was  confronted  with  a  formidable 
array  of  three  great  Powers  joined  by  an  en- 
tente, the  very  nature  of  which  the  Kaiser  was 
unable  to  fathom. 

To  dissipate  the  friendly  understanding  be- 
tween France  and  Great  Britain  was  now  the 
aim  of  his  diplomacy,  and  to  that  end  was  de- 


The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat  151 

signed  the  famous  interview  that  appeared  in 
the  Daily  Telegraph  of  London.  In  that  in- 
terview he  claimed  that  he  was  the  chief  friend 
of  Great  Britain,  in  a  country  that  was  hostile, 
and  was  made  more  hostile  by  British  suspi- 
cions. He  advanced  as  proof  the  fact  that  he 
alone  had  prevented  a  combination  of  the  Eu- 
ropean Powers  to  intervene  during  the  Boer 
war,  and  so  to  save  the  Republics  and  humiliate 
England.  ''When  the  struggle  was  at  its 
height,"  he  said,  ''the  Governments  of  France 
and  Russia  invited  me  to  join  with  them  to  call 
upon  England  to  put  an  end  to  the  war.  The 
moment  had  come  to  humiliate  England  to  the 
dust.  Posterity  will  one  day  read  the  exact 
terms  of  the  telegram — now  in  the  archives  of 
Windsor  Castle — in  which  I  informed  the  Sov- 
ereign of  England  of  the  answer  I  had  returned 
to  the  Powers  which  then  sought  to  compass 
her  fall.  Englishmen  who  now  insult  me  by 
doubting  my  word  should  know  what  were  my 
actions  in  the  hour  of  their  adversity. ' ' 

Later,  he  declared,  he  had  saved  a  strained 
situation  by  his  correct  attitude  to  the  Boer 
delegates  to  Europe. 

"The  Boer  delegates  were  feted  in  Holland; 
France  gave  them  a  rapturous  welcome.     They 


152  The  Real  Kaiser 

wished  to  come  to  Berlin,  where  the  German 
people  would  have  crowned  them  with  flowers. 
But  when  they  asked  me  to  receive  them — I 
refused.  The  delegates  went  away  empty- 
handed.  ' ' 

His  conduct,  he  averred,  had  earned  him  a 
lasting  unpopularity  in  Germany. 

' '  The  prevailing  sentiment  among  a  large  sec- 
tion of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  my 
own  people  is  not  friendly  to  England.  I  am, 
therefore,  so  to  speak,  in  a  minority  in  my  own 
land." 

There  is  no  more  evidence  to-day  than  there 
was  at  the  time  to  cast  against  these  statements 
of  the  Kaiser.  No  denial  has  ever  been  made 
of  the  existence  of  the  telegram  at  Windsor 
Castle,  and  the  truth  of  the  remainder  of  his 
contentions  could  not  be  disputed.  But  the 
publication  of  the  interview  caused  an  upheaval 
of  German  opinion. 

The  feeling  was  intensified  by  the  statements 
about  another  interview,  given  to  Dr.  Hale  for 
publication  in  the  pages  of  the  Century  Maga- 
zine of  New  York.  This  interview  is  alleged 
to  have  been  even  a  stronger  bid  for  American 
friendship.  The  interview  was  suppressed,  for 
no  other  consideration,  it  is  stated,  than  the 


The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat  153 

feeling  of  the  editor  of  the  magazine  that  its 
publication  would  have  been  harmful  to  the 
Kaiser  himself.  Other  statements  were  made, 
in  which  a  large  sum  of  money  was  mentioned. 
An  unsavoury  atmosphere  surrounds  the  whole 
transaction,  for  any  blameworthy  share  in 
which  Dr.  Hale  can  be  fully  acquitted,  as  can 
the  proprietor  of  the  magazine  in  question. 

But  the  American  interview  certainly  coun- 
teracted any  good  effect  which  the  Kaiser  might 
have  produced  in  England  by  his  statement  to 
the  Daily  Telegraph,  while  complicating  his  po- 
sition still  further  with  his  own  people. 

Feeling  against  him  was  intense  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Germany.  It  found 
its  expression  ultimately  in  the  action  of  his 
Chancellor,  von  Buelow.  He  extracted  a 
pledge  from  the  Kaiser  of  '* greater  reserve" 
in  National  affairs,  and  thereby  sealed  his  own 
doom.  In  the  words  of  Mr.  F.  W.  Wile  {Men 
around  the  Kaiser),  "The  Imperial  Gazette 
proclaimed  that  the  Kaiser  had  assured  the 
man  with  the  muzzle  of  his  'continued  confi- 
dence,' but  Buelow  actually  lay  in  extremis 
from  the  moment  he  quit  his  chastened  sover- 
eign's presence." 

The   actual   dismissal   was   delayed   for   six 


154  The  Beat  Kaiser 

months,  but  in  the  middle  of  1909  Bethmann- 
HoUweg  succeeded  von  Buelow.  The  fall  of 
Buelow  paved  the  way  to  Agadir.  With  the 
warning  words  uttered  by  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
still  fresh  in  the  memory  of  all,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  detail  the  humiliation  then  inflicted  by 
France  and  Great  Britain  upon  the  Kaiser  and 
his  Chancellor  and  Foreign  Minister. 

It  gave  the  war  party  in  Germany  a  firm 
grip  upon  their  Emperor,  but  did  not  serve  as 
a  lesson  to  the  blunderers  in  whose  hands  Ger- 
man diplomacy  was  confided.  As  we  shall  see, 
an  appeal  to  force  was  now  inevitable,  as  far 
as  Germany  could  effect  that  end. 

Even  at  this  late  stage  in  the  game  a  Bis- 
marck might  have  saved  Germany  from  such 
an  array  of  strength  as  she  was  finally  called 
upon  to  face.  A  Bismarck  would  certainly 
have  ensured  a  divided  British  Empire  in  war, 
instead  of  the  great  unity  that  has  been  created 
by  German' disregard  for  the  value  of  ''a  scrap 
of  paper." 

This  was  the  crowning  failure  to  the  Kaiser's 
career  as  a  diplomatist,  and  points  more  elo- 
quently to  the  conclusion  that  all  his  acts  in 
that  capacity  have  been  swayed  by  impulse, 
and  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  a  theatrical  show 


The  Kaiser  as  Diplomat  155 

of  force.  For,  if  we  judge  him  by  his  utter- 
ances extending  over  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
he  has  always  believed  that  he  could  preserve 
the  peace  of  Europe  by  making  an  overwhelm- 
ing display  of  force. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  KAISER  AND  PEACE 

"I  struggle  all  the  time  to  preserve  peace." 

Into  the  Roman  Senate  there  once  strode  a 
foreign  envoy  holding  aloft  the  hem  of  his  robe. 
**I  bring  you  here,"  he  cried.  ''Peace  or  war. 
Choose  which  you  will." 

Throughout  the  long  reign  of  the  Kaiser, 
Fate  has  always  stood  before  him,  urging  upon 
him  the  fateful  choice.  Not  once,  but  a  dozen 
times  in  the  course  of  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
has  the  traditional  policy  of  Prussia  brought 
the  Kaiser  face  to  face  with  the  stern  decision. 
He  completed  the  twenty-fifth  year  of  his  reign 
amid  a  chorus  of  congratulations  from  the 
world's  Press  on  the  fact  that  he  had  invaria- 
bly chosenr  the  shining  white  gift  of  Peace. 
This  outstanding  fact  should  always  be  borne 
in  mind  by  those  who  wish  to  form  an  estimate 
of  the  life  struggle  of  the  real  Kaiser. 

He  came  to  the  Imperial  throne  with  exalted 
words  of  peace  in  his  mouth.  ''The  eyes  of 
the  whole   world  are  lifted  questioningly  to- 

156 


The  Kaiser  and  Peace  157 

ward  us,"  lie  proclaimed.  ''They  sue  for 
peace.  Only  in  peace  can  the  world's  trade  be 
developed,  in  peace  only  can  it  prosper.  We 
desire  to  maintain  that  peace,  and  will  do  so." 

In  the  sincerity  of  that  promise,  all  his  in- 
timates believed.  Count  von  Munster,  who  was 
German  Ambassador  at  Paris,  made  a  very 
forcible  declaration  of  his  belief  to  de  Frey- 
cinet,  who  records  it  in  his  memoirs,  ''I  know 
William,"  said  von  Munster;  "I  played  with 
him  as  a  child,  and  I  never  miss  seeing  him  when 
I  am  in  Berlin.  His  sentiments  are  deeply  re- 
ligious. He  will  never  be  the  first  to  make 
war. ' ' 

Indeed,  peace  was  a  thing  more  eminently  to 
be  desired  by  Germany  than  by  any  other  coun- 
try, when  the  Kaiser  came  to  the  throne.  The 
serious  men  of  the  age  were  those  who  had 
fought  in  a  succession  of  wars.  They  were 
glorious  and  profitable  wars,  but  they  had  dis- 
located the  whole  commercial  life  of  Germany, 
and  the  country  was  still  in  the  stage  of  re- 
covery. The  whole  feeling  of  the  masses  was 
firmly  behind  the  Kaiser  every  time  he  ex- 
tolled the  virtues  of  peace.  He  was  keen 
enough  as  a  business  man,  and  sjTupathetic 
enough  as  a  monarch,  to  appreciate  this. 


158  The  Real  Kaiser 

After  twenty-five  years  as  Deutscher  Kaiser, 
lie  still  adhered  to  Ms  initial  proposition.  In 
a  speech  reviewing  the  marvellous  transforma- 
tion wrought  in  the  Empire  during  that  period, 
he  concluded :  ' '  That  this  has  happened  under 
the  fertilizing  rays  of  the  sun  of  peace,  the 
strength  of  which  has  victoriously  dispelled  ev- 
ery cloud  appearing  on  the  horizon,  makes  me 
particularly  happy." 

A  hundred  hardheaded  men  who  had  been 
in  close  contact  with  him  were  firmly  convinced 
of  the  sincerity  of  these,  and  many  kindred  ut- 
terances. Fried,  the  winner  of  a  Nobel  peace 
prize,  Carnegie,  Lipton,  and  other  British  wit- 
nesses, have  testified  to  this.  More  convincing 
is  the  evidence  of  the  little  group  of  Jewish 
capitalists  in  Germany,  such  as  Ballin,  who  en- 
joyed the  intimacy  and  confidence  of  the  Kaiser. 
The  growth  of  the  Hamburg- Amerika  line,  and 
the  recent  movements  of  its  vessels,  are  testi- 
mony that  Ballin  to  the  very  last  had  refused  to 
believe  in  an  imminent  war  with  Britain;  and 
he  stands  to-day,  practically  a  ruined  man, 
with  his  life  work  crumbling  at  his  feet,  be- 
cause of  the  fulness  of  that  belief. 

It  may  be  asked  how  such  levelheaded  men 
could  adhere  to  that  opinion  in  the  face  of  the 


The  Kaiser  and  Peace  159 

wildly  provocative  acts,  and  the  intensely  war- 
like speeches,  for  which  the  Kaiser  has  also 
been  responsible,  at  very  close  intervals, 
throughout  his  reign.  An  explanation  will  be 
found  in  the  words  of  William  himself,  tagged 
on  to  a  speech  in  which  he  had  eloquently  pro- 
claimed the  glories  of  peace,  and  had  announced 
his  ambition  to  live  through  history  by  the 
proud  title  of  Wilhelm  der  Friedreiche: — Wil- 
liam the  Peaceful. 

' '  If  our  enemies  knew  that,  ■ '  he  added,  ' '  they 
would  think  Germany  was  weak,  and  would  at- 
tack us.  Therefore  our  army  must  remain 
strong,  and  appear  threatening,  and  thanks  to 
our  army  and  the  fear  it  imposes,  Germany  will 
win  the  commercial  and  industrial  supremacy 
which  is  the  goal  of  my  life. ' ' 

An  illuminating  incident  is  that  of  the  ser- 
mon of  Pastor  Hammelreuth,  a  good  man  whose 
flock  dwelt  in  a  small  Westphalian  town.  The 
Kaiser  paid  a  surprise  visit  to  the  church  one 
Sunday  morning,  just  as  service  was  beginning, 
and  strode  to  a  prominent  seat  in  the  church. 
A  few  days  before,  he  had  delivered  himself 
of  one  of  his  most  inflammatory  martial 
speeches. 

The  pastor  was  a  brave  man.     He  abandoned 


160  The  Real  Kaiser 

the  sermon  lie  had  prepared,  and  substituted  an 
impromptu  on  the  horrors  of  war.  He  con- 
cluded with  the  flat  statement  that  the  man  who 
caused  a  European  war  would  have  an  awful 
responsibility  to  bear,  both  now  and  hereafter. 
William  heard  it  through  with  stern,  set  face, 
and  at  the  conclusion  sent  for  the  bold  preacher. 
'*A  very  good  discourse,"  he  said,  "and  every 
word  of  it  true." 

The  Kaiser's  argument,  that  to  maintain  an 
advantageous  peace  it  is  necessary  to  be  pre- 
pared to  wage  a  successful  war,  is  not  peculiar 
to  Germany.  We  have  heard  it  advanced  in  this 
country,  almost  to  the  verge  of  weariness.  In 
recent  days  we  have  heard  that  the  country's 
timely  attention  to  these  warning  voices  would 
have  saved  the  world  from  the  horrors  of  a 
great  European  war.  And  we  have  been  told, 
in  the  same  breath,  that,  if  we  had  refrained 
from  declaring  war  on  Germany  when  we  did, 
we  should  but  have  postponed  the  evil  day. 

The  contradictions  of  our  own  militarists  may 
at  least  serve  to  illustrate  and  emphasise  the 
difficulties  of  the  Kaiser's  position  as  main- 
tainer  of  the  world's  peace  by  force  of  arms. 

It  must  further  be  pointed  out  that  a  warlike 
policy  is  traditional  with   Germany.     All  the 


The  Kaiser  and  Peace  161 

Empire  has  ever  got  has  been  gained  by  force 
of  arms.  Unity,  increased  territory,  and  the 
capital  for  commercial  expansion  were  all 
gained  at  the  point  of  the  sword.  It  was  only 
to  a  generation  of  tired  and  sated  warriors  that 
William  the  Peaceful  could  expound  his  doc- 
trine of  an  armed  peace.  When  a  new  genera- 
tion had  grown  up,  the  Kaiser's  difficulties  as 
peace  advocate  were  intensified. 

That  the  leader  of  the  new  generation  should 
be  his  own  son  and  heir  was  only  in  accordance 
with  the  traditions  of  the  Hohenzollerns.  The 
Kaiser  had  attained  his  youthful  popularity  by 
bitterly  opposing  his  own  father,  the  generous 
Friedrich.  He  renounced  his  claim  to  British 
consideration  as  partly  an  Englishman  by  his 
treatment  of  his  own  mother,  an  English  prin- 
cess. As  a  son  he  had  sowed  the  wind,  for  the 
reward  of  popularity  with  his  people ;  as  a  lov- 
ing father  he  reaped  the  whirlwind. 

The  party  behind  the  warlike  Crown  Prince 
not  only  consisted  of  the  young  hotbloods  of  the 
Germany  army.  He  had  the  solid  backing  of 
the  Conservative  party,  the  landowners  of 
Prussia.  Poor  always,  and  growing  poorer  in 
spite  of  the  tariff  designed  to  benefit  their  agri- 
culture at  the  expense  of  the  industrial  com- 


162  The  Real  Kaiser 

munity,  they  rebelled  at  the  Kaiser's  intimacy 
with  the  money  magnates  and  industrial  chiefs. 
Their  pride  of  birth,  their  pride  in  arms,  and 
their  inherited  traditions  were  revolted  by  the 
spectacle.  Every  peace  declaration  the  Kaiser 
had  made  nauseated  them.  War  was  more  than 
a  profession  to  these  people,  it  was  a  religion. 

The  Crown  Prince  had  behind  him  as  well  the 
sympathy,  perhaps  the  unconscious  sympathy, 
of  the  masses.  We  are  told  that  we  are  not  now 
making  war  on  the  German  people,  but  on  the 
war  caste,  of  which  the  Kaiser  and  his  sons  are 
the  emblem.    I  deny  this. 

I  have  been  accustomed  to  go  into  German 
houses  in  many  provincial  centres,  where  I  am 
received  as  a  friend  and  even  as  a  connexion, 
though  by  marriage  only.  In  more  than  one 
of  these  houses  it  was  the  custom  of  the  young 
men  to  rise  and  leave  the  room  when  I  entered. 
Bright,  pleasant  young  fellows,  whom  I  knew  as 
simple  manly  boys,  would  not  stay  in  the  same 
room  as  the  enemy  of  their  country.  They 
would  not  assume  a  friendship  they  did  not  feel. 
These  were  not  young  aristocrats,  shackled  with 
the  pride  of  birth  and  the  traditions  of  Junker- 
dom.     They  were  just  young  fellows   of  the 


The  Kaiser  and  Peace  163 

middle  class,  prejudiced  by  militarism  and  the 
poison  of  a  hideous  philosophy. 

None  who  has  not  lived  much  in  Germany  dur- 
ing very  recent  years  can  believe  how  wide- 
spread is  this  poison  of  violence  and  aggression. 
It  peeps  out  in  the  columns  of  the  daily  papers, 
it  is  for  ever  in  the  mouths  of  teachers  and 
speakers.  In  the  friendly  houses  I  have  men- 
tioned I  became  accustomed,  when  a  few  friends 
had  met,  to  see  some  elderly  gentleman  rise, 
apropos  of  nothing  at  all,  and  deliver  a  speech 
lasting  twenty  minutes.  The  subject  was  al- 
ways the  same,  the  deprivation  of  Germany's 
just  rights.  The  indolence  and  greed  of  my 
o^\Ti  country,  the  unfruitfulness  of  France,  and 
the  ability  and  culture  of  Germany  were  dilated 
upon  in  turn. 

All  this  feeling  found  expression  after  the 
dramatic  meeting  of  the  Eeichstag  which  fol- 
lowed the  Morocco  settlement  in  1911.  At  that 
meeting  Dr.  von  Heydebrand,  the  leader  of  the 
Conservative  party,  and  the  most  powerful  man 
in  that  assembly,  rose  and  delivered  an  unparal- 
leled invective  against  the  Government  for  its 
craven  peacefulness.  In  the  Royal  box  sat  the 
Crown  Prince,  wearing  his  uniform  as  Colonel 


164  The  Real  Kaiser 

of  the  Death's  Head  Hussars.  With  shining 
eyes  and  parted  lips  he  leaned  forward,  devour- 
ing every  word  of  the  scathing  indictment. 
When  this  call  to  arms  concluded,  the  heir  to  the 
throne  ostentatiously  clapped  his  hands,  lead- 
ing a  volley  of  applause  in  which  members  of  all 
parties  joined. 

Germany  had  been  submitted  to  a  bitter 
humiliation,  and  the  real  Germany  was  peeping 
out  from  under  the  covering  of  theory  and  cul- 
ture which  had  hidden  it  from  the  world.  For 
that  humiliation  Germany  blamed  the  Kaiser 
alone.  ''The  Emperor  kept  the  peace  alone," 
wrote  Professor  Delbrueck,  adding  that  during 
the  Boer  War  he  was  the  only  friend  that  Eng- 
land had  in  Europe.  The  old  cry  of  ''English- 
man" was  revived  against  him.  It  was  the 
worst  thing  Young  Germany  could  devise  to 
cast  against  him. 

The  Kaiser  awoke  next  day  to  find  himself  and 
his  ministers  derided  and  scorned.  For  what? 
For  having  kept  the  peace  of  Europe.  For  hav- 
ing submitted  Germany  to  a  humiliation.  For 
having  admitted  that  the  bluff  of  the  best  army 
and  the  second  best  navy  in  the  world  is  of  no 
avail  for  a  nation  which  does  not  really  mean 
war,  when  confronted  by  courageous  and  reso- 


The  Kaiser  and  Peace  165 

lute  opponents.  In  that  hour  died  William  the 
Peaceful. 

He  made  the  change  apparent  to  the  whole 
Court.  His  demeanour  proclaimed,  not  the 
profound  humiliation  he  had  experienced  at  the 
hands  of  his  son,  but  a  new  resolution.  The 
whisper  went  round  that  "Majesty  was  acting 
again."  His  joviality  of  demeanour  was  laid 
aside,  even  among  intimates.  His  appearances 
in  public  were  no  less  frequent,  and  the  most 
casual  observer  could  notice  the  change  in  him. 
He  became  the  smileless  Emperor,  the  man  who 
was  mastered  by  a  stern  resolve. 

Those  who  knew  him  best,  knew  that  the  die 
was  cast.  Fate  had  dropped  the  suspended  fold 
of  her  garment,  and  the  black  gift  of  War  was 
about  to  roll  out.  Germany  began  to  prepare 
in  grim  earnest  to  convert  her  show  of  might 
to  actual  readiness  for  conflict.  With  what 
stealth  and  ferocity  the  preparation  was  made 
the  history  of  the  first  weeks  of  the  war  will 
partly  testify.  Much  of  the  story  of  that  hid- 
den readiness  for  the  great  Sin  has  yet  to  be 
revealed. 

But  the  lifelong  struggle  of  the  Kaiser  was 
over.  ''I  struggle  all  my  life  for  peace,"  he 
had  said.     The  trained  warrior  King  may  have 


166  The  Real  Kaiser 

felt  a  relief  when  tlie  struggle  was  over,  when 
he  could  take  the  place  usurped  by  his  son  and 
heir,  as  leader  of  a  nation  under  arms  and  con- 
vinced by  a  false  logic  of  the  righteousness  of 
aggression. 

That  part  of  Europe  which  he  had  convinced 
of  his  peacefulness  continued  in  its  belief.  It 
was  his  reward,  if  it  can  be  called  a  reward,  for 
the  struggle  he  had  made  against  the  conviction 
of  his  people.  "On  him  for  two  decades  has 
the  peace  of  Europe  depended,  and  the  peace  of 
Europe  has  been  kept,"  wrote  the  Times  on  the 
occasion  of  his  last  visit  to  this  country.  That 
fact  is  apt  to  be  overlooked  in  the  welter  of  tor- 
ment that  has  changed  the  face  of  the  world. 

But  history  will  record  that  he  struggled  to 
preserve  peace.  History  will  also  decide  that 
he  might  have  struggled  harder. 

His  infamy  will  be  the  greater,  since  he  alone 
of  all  the  warlike  band  understood  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  step  that  was  to  be  taken.  His  quick 
understanding  and  many-sided  character  en- 
abled him  to  see  that  Germany  was  about  to  ad- 
minister to  humanity  the  greatest  shock  it  had 
ever  received  since  the  crucifixion  of  the  Re- 
deemer. The  militarist  fanatics  who  plotted 
with  him,  misled  by  their  perverted  logic,  saw 


The  Kaiser  and  Peace  167 

nothing  monstrous  in  their  deliberate  scheme  for 
shocking  the  world  into  acquiescence. 

Only  William  the  Peaceful  could  estimate  the 
effect  of  these  burnings  and  tortures  of  women 
and  children,  this  arranged  programme  of 
bestial  inhuman  violence.  He  knew  how  the 
Germans  would  make  war  when  they  got  the 
chance ;  he  had  experienced  the  elemental  brute 
that  dominated  his  people.  When  the  Imperial 
family  drove  into  Berlin  after  war  had  been 
declared,  through  the  joking,  cheering  crowds, 
the  Crown  Prince  was  all  gay  laughter,  and  his 
consort  smiled  and  waved  her  hands  to  the  war- 
mad  throng.  But  the  Kaiser  preserved  the 
masklike  face  he  had  been  wearing  ever  since 
the  rein  had  been  given  to  the  Fury  in  his  soul. 
Stern  and  grim  he  was,  for  he  could  gauge  the 
future.    Yes,  he  knew;  the  Kaiser  knew! 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  HEIR 

"The  picture  of  reality  appears  to  stand  out  in  bolder, 
firmer,  and  more  natural  outlines  to  the  eyes  of  the  son 
than  it  does  in  many  a  speech  of  the  Kaiserly  father." — 
Dr.  Paul  Liman,  1914. 

The  fateful  crisis  of  1908  deposed  the  Kaiser 
from  the  hopes  of  militant  Germany  for  ever. 
Whatever  suspicions  may  have  been  cherished 
in  this  country  and  in  other  foreign  lands, 
Junkerdom  decided  finally  that  the  peaceful  ut- 
terances of  the  Kaiser  were  to  be  taken  at  their 
face  value,  and  that  it  must  look  elsewhere  for  a 
leader  for  its  scheme  of  armed  aggression. 

It  was  not  necessary  to  look  far,  for  the-  in- 
strument was  ready  to  hand  in  the  heir  to  the 
throne.  Frederick  William,  up  to  the  time  of 
his  marriage,  had  been  regarded  as  a  young 
man  who  allowed  himself  to  be  treated  as  a  boy, 
a  mere  puppet  in  the  hands  of  a  masterful 
father.  His  secret  courtship  of  Cecilie,  Duch- 
ess of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  touched  the 
spring  of  sentiment  in  the  hearts  of  the  GeiTQan 

168 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Heir  169 

people.  Her  substantial  dowry  of  £1,000,000 
placed  him  for  the  first  time  in  a  position  of  in- 
dependence, for  until  then  his  income  was  de- 
rived directly  from  the  Kaiser,  and  was  only 
paid  subject  to  his  father's  good  will. 

His  wedding  took  place  in  1905.  In  1907  he 
performed  a  public  service  to  Germany  by 
bringing  to  the  notice  of  the  Kaiser  the  charges 
levelled  against  a  group  of  officers  who  were  in 
intimate  relations  with  the  Emperor.  The 
Kaiser  at  that  time  was  the  only  man  in  the 
Empire  who  did  not  know  what  was  being  writ- 
ten by  Harden  in  his  paper  Zukunft  against 
Prince  Eulenberg,  his  personal  friend,  General 
Kuno  von  Moltke,  his  aide-de-camp,  and  others 
who  were  allied  to  them.  The  cutting  bureau 
had  been  keeping  the  charges  back  from  the 
Kaiser.  It  was  the  Crown  Prince  who  took  his 
courage  in  his  hand,  and  brought  the  whole  mat- 
ter before  the  Kaiser.  He  was  thus  the  direct 
instrument  in  ending  a  scandal  which  was  hor- 
rifying even  the  most  cynical  Germans. 

About  the  end  of  1908,  little  paragraphs  be- 
gan to  appear  in  the  German  papers,  tending  to 
show  what  a  charming  young  man  this  Crown 
Prince  really  was.  He  was  most  kind-hearted ; 
stopped  his  motor  car  to  give  a  weary  labourer  a 


170  The  Ileal  Kaiser 

lift  to  his  home.  He  was  passionately  fond  of 
children,  and  would  always  stop  in  the  street  to 
pet  and  admire  the  little  ones.  He  gave  a  pretty 
flower  girl  twenty  marks  for  a  bunch  of  violets ; 
he  showed  in  many  ways  that  he  had  a  heart  of 
gold.  All  little  stories  designed  to  tickle  the 
surface  sentiment  of  the  masses. 

It  also  appeared  from  the  Press  that  he  was 
a  broad-minded  young  man,  who  did  not  share 
his  father's  prejudice  against  the  proletariat. 
He  attended  and  applauded  Hauptmann's  play, 
which  the  Kaiser  had  banned  on  account  of  its 
Socialistic  tendency.  He  chatted  with  an  old 
cobbler  who  was  a  pronounced  Social  Democrat, 
and  told  him  that  * '  Social  Democrats  would  one 
day  be  received  at  Potsdam." 

All  this  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  Kaiser. 
The  Crown  Prince  found  it  advisable  to  make  a 
shooting  trip  in  India,  but  his  reputation  re- 
mained behind  in  Germany.  He  returned  to 
greater  popularity  than  ever,  and  became  more 
immersed  than  ever  in  the  affairs  of  the  Em- 
pire. In  April,  1911,  he  interfered  in  the  recon- 
ciliation with  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  brought 
about  by  the  betrothal  of  Princess  Victoria 
Louise  to  the  Duke  of  Brunswick.  He  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  Chancellor,  insisting  that  the  recon- 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Heir  171 

ciliation  should  only  take  place  on  condition  that 
the  Duke  publicly  renounced  his  claim  to  the 
throne  of  Hanover. 

This  letter  was  published  in  the  German 
press,  and  a  dispute  followed;  one  section  of 
the  Press  openly  espousing  the  cause  of  young 
Hotspur.  He  was  sent  away  from  Berlin  to  act 
as  Colonel  of  the  Death's  Head  Hussars,  then 
quartered  at  Dantzic.  But  he  had  made  another 
daring  and  successful  appeal  to  the  patriotism 
of  the  German  masses. 

He  left  Dantzic,  without  permission,  to  play 
his  dramatic  part  in  the  Agadir  debate  in  the 
Reichstag.  For  this  he  was  openly  applauded 
by  the  Chauvinist  Press ;  for  his  plan  was  now 
sufficiently  apparent. 

The  Cro^vn  Prince  henceforth  becomes  a 
prime  factor  in  German  affairs.  He  returned 
to  Dantzic  with  his  purpose  half  accomplished. 

He  was  recalled  to  Berlin  at  the  end  of  1913, 
and  took  leave  of  his  Hussars  in  a  letter  that 
was  read  at  roll-call.  His  purpose  rings  clearly 
in  every  sentence  of  it. 

' '  HussAEs  or  MY  Regiment, — 

''For  more  than  two  years  I  have  worn  the 
same   coat   and  faithfully   followed  the   same 


172  The  Real  Kaiser 

standard  as  you.  His  Majesty  the  Emperor 
and  King  has  assigned  to  me  a  fresh  field  of 
military  work,  and  I  must  obey.  It  is  cursedly 
difficult  for  me,  and  my  heart  is  breaking  at  the 
thought  that  I  shall  no  longer  ride  through  life 
at  your  head.     You  will  all  feel  that,  I  am  sure. 

"The  two  happiest  years  of  my  life  I  have 
spent  in  your  ranks;  to-day  I  carry  my  youth 
to  the  grave.  True,  they  can  separate  me  from 
you,  but  my  heart  and  my  spirit  remain  with 
you.  If  some  day  the  King  calls,  and  the  signal 
March!  March!  is  blown,  then  think  of  him 
whose  most  yearning  wish  it  always  was  to  ex- 
perience at  your 'side  this  moment  of  highest 
soldierly  happiness. 

"But  the  firm  and  deep  bond  that  indissolu- 
bly  unites  you,  my  children  of  the  regiment, 
with  me  will  only  be  rent  asunder,  when  for  me, 
too,  the  hour  has  struck  for  the  march  to  the 
great  army  above.  My  dearly  loved  regiment, 
Hurrah ! ' ' 

Almost  in  the  same  hour  there  was  taking 
place  in  Alsace  that  serious  breach  of  the  consti- 
tution which  is  known  for  convenience  as  the 
Zabern  incident.  While  Colonel  von  Renter 
was  pursuing  his  wild  course  of  aggression,  he 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Heir  173 

received  a  telegram  from  the  Crown  Prince.  It 
was  brief  but  explicit:  "Go  ahead,  and  stick 
to  it."  And  when  the  incident  had  reached  its 
climax,  the  Crown  Prince  employed  the  wires 
once  more  with  the  brief  message,  ''Bravo." 

From  the  time  of  the  Agadir  debate  the 
Kaiser  ceased  in  his  speeches  and  proclama- 
tions to  refer  to  his  task  of  preserving  the 
peace  of  Europe.  Only  one  exception  was 
made,  and  that  was  the  proclamation  issued  on 
the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  accession, 
when  the  whole  press  of  the  world  was  comment- 
ing favourably  on  the  fact  that  in  his  reign  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century  he  had  carried  out  his  vow 
to  keep  the  peace. 

Late  in  1913  he  paid  a  fateful  visit  to  the  Em- 
peror of  Austria  and  the  Archduke  Ferdinand 
at  Schoenbrunn.  This  visit  was  immediately 
preceded  by  the  most  sinister  rumours  in  the 
German  and  Austrian  Press.  The  St.  Peters- 
burg correspondent  of  the  Kolnisclie  Zeitung 
openly  accused  Russia  of  arming  for  war;  the 
rumour  was  confirmed  by  the  organ  of  the  Aus- 
trian War  Minister,  the  MilitariscJie  Rund- 
schau. The  Kaiser's  visit  to  Schoenbrunn  had 
been  planned  as  a  secret;  he  was  to  have  gone 
incognito ;  but  the  plan  leaked  out  in  the  Press. 


174  The  Real  Kaiser 

Only  the  scantiest  account  of  tlie  visit  was  ever 
published. 

In  the  meantime  the  Crown  Prince  was  pur- 
suing his  purposeful  propaganda.  He  wrote  a 
preface  to  a  pamphlet  of  a  wildly  warlike  na- 
ture, entitled  Germany  under  Arms.  From  the 
preface  the  following  passage  may  be  taken  as  a 
sample  of  the  whole. 

' '  Our  Fatherland,  more  than  other  countries, 
is  forced  to  rely  upon  its  trusty  weapons.  Ill 
defended  by  unfavourable  geographical  fron- 
tiers, and  situated  in  the  centre  of  Europe,  it  is 
not  regarded  with  love  by  all  nations.  It  is  the 
holy  duty  of  Germany,  above  all  other  peoples 
of  our  old  earth,  to  maintain  an  Army  and  a 
Fleet  ever  at  the  highest  point  of  readiness. 
Only  then,  supported  by  our  own  good  sword, 
can  we  preserve  the  place  in  the  sun  which  is  our 
due,  but  is  not  willingly  granted  us." 

Nothing  could  be  more  eloquent  of  the  success 
with  which  he  had  stolen  the  Kaiser's  tliunder. 
The  achievement  was  celebrated  by  the  publica- 
tion of  a  biography  by  Dr.  Paul  Liman,  which  is 
one  of  the  most  popular  books  in  Berlin  to-day. 
The  writer  openly  compares  him  with  the  Em- 
peror, to  the  latter 's  disadvantage. 

"And  indeed  the  straightforward  and  clear 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Heir  175 

character  of  the  son  appears  to  be  free  from  all 
leaning  towards  that  unfortunate  mysticism 
which,  in  the  November  days  of  1908,  nearly  led 
to  a  Jena  for  the  monarchical  idea.  .  .  .  The 
German  who  loves  his  people,  who  believes  in 
the  greatness  and  future  of  the  Homeland,  and 
will  not  have  its  authority  lowered,  must  not 
shut  his  eyes  in  such  dreams,  must  not  let  him- 
self be  lulled  to  sleep  by  the  Peace  Song  of  the 
Utopians." 

•  In  April,  1914,  occurred  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  the  fall  of  Dueppel,  which  was  the  turn- 
ing point  in  the  war  of  aggression  waged  by 
Germany  and  Austria  against  little  Denmark. 
Nobody  in  Germany  remembered  the  date,  or 
attached  any  particular  significance  to  it,  until 
the  appearance  of  a  Cabinet  Order  from  the 
Kaiser  to  the  Army  on  the  subject  of  "the 
struggle  for  Germany's  Northern  marches." 

The  order  concluded : — 

"To-day  it  is  the  need  of  my  heart  to  offer 
my  thanks  to  all  those  who  fifty  years  ago  staked 
their  lives  for  Prussia's  greatness  and  honour. 
The  deeds  of  the  fathers  live  in  the  memory  of 
their  sons  and  grandsons.  I  know  that  these 
sons,  in  loyal  devotion  to  me,  and  to  the  Father- 
land, will  do  likewise  if  ever  an  enemy's  hand 


176  The  Real  Kaiser 

assails  what  was  won  by  such  precious  sacri- 
fice." 

Events  were  now  moving  quickly.  Germany 
and  Austria  were  provisioning  for  war,  as  re- 
ports from  America  and  Canada  have  made 
abundantly  clear.  In  June,  1914,  the  Kaiser, 
accompanied  by  Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  the  Min- 
ister of  the  Navy,  paid  yet  another  visit  to  the 
Austrian  Crown  Prince,  and  at  Konopitz  the 
final  details  of  the  great  plot  were  finally  set- 
tled. History  records  how  that  plot  was  shat- 
tered, and  how  its  execution  was  precipitated 
on  a  fresh  pretext  by  the  crime  of  Sarajevo. 

While  the  father  was  at  Konopitz  the  son  was 
not  idle.  A  chance  account  of  his  activities  is 
preserved  in  a  message  from  the  Brussels  cor- 
respondent of  the  Daily  Telegraph,  published  in 
the  issue  of  that  paper  for  June  10,  1914.  At 
the  time  the  people  of  this  country  were  lapped 
in  security,  ,and  the  message,  published  as  a 
curious  circumstance  and  without  any  com- 
ment, attracted  little  attention.  Nor  has  any 
reference  been  made  to  it  since,  and  as  it  ap- 
pears to  have  escaped  attention  in  the  pressure 
of  the  present,  no  excuse  need  be  made  for  re- 
producing it  in  full. 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Heir  177 

GERMAN  CROWN  PRINCE 

CURIOUS  MOTOR  TOUR 

From  our  own  Correspondent 

Brussels,  Tuesday. 

It  has  transpired  that  the  Crown  Prince  of  Germany  com- 
pleted last  Sunday,  near  the  Belgian  frontier,  a  military 
staff  excursion  in  Alsace  Lorraine. 

From  Metz  he  travelled  in  an  autocar  to  St.  Vith  and 
Montjoie,  along  the  very  road  a  German  army  invading 
Belgium  to  strike  at  France's  most  unprotected  frontier 
would  use  as  a  base. 

Tn  Belgian  Military  circles  the  fact  is  considered  some- 
what disquieting. 

In  June,  1914,  while  the  Kaiser  was  plotting 
with  the  Austrian  Archduke  at  Konopitz,  the 
Crown  Prince  was  spying  out  the  country 
through  which  he  was  to  lead  an  invading  army 
in  August.  A  notable  task  for  the  heir  to  the 
throne  of  an  Empire  which  claims  world  pre- 
dominance. 

Shortly  afterwards  there  was  published  a 
pamphlet  by  a  crazy  Pan-Germanist  named  Fro- 
benius,  entitled  Germany's  Hour  of  Destiny. 
It  foretold  the  great  European  war,  assigning 
as  its  date  either  1915  or  1916.  The  Crown 
Prince  was  apparently  too  busy  to  write  a  pref- 
ace to  it,  but  he  found  time  to  dispatch  a  tele- 


178  The  Beat  Kaiser 

gram  to  Frobenius,  pronouncing  it  ''excellent." 
After  the  murder  of  the  Archduke  Ferdinand, 
Professor  Buckholz,  of  Posen,  a  violent  Chau- 
vinist, made  a  speech  attacking  the  German 
Chancellor  in  unmeasured  terms  as  a  weak- 
kneed  incompetent.  To  him,  too,  the  Crown 
Prince  sent  a  wire,  saying  that  it  was  "excel- 
lent." 

There  is  no  need  to  describe  what  followed. 
The  pretext  was  there,  the  preparations  were 
made,  the  Kaiser  went  on  a  yachting  tour,  and 
Germany  plunged  Europe  into  war. 

One  picture  more  of  defeated  father  and  tri- 
umphant heir  may  be  added.  It  is  taken  from 
an  account  given  by  Dr.  Poutsma,  one  of  the  few 
British  subjects  left  with  freedom  to  observe  in 
Berlin,  and  supplied  by  him  to  the  Daily  Citi- 
zen. It  describes  the  entry  of  the  Imperial 
party  to  Berlin  after  the  declaration  of  war. 

"During  my  enforced  stay  in  the  capital  I 
saw  the  entrance  of  the  Kaiser,  the  Kaiserin, 
and  the  Crown  Prince,  with  his  wife  and  the 
princes,  from  Potsdam.  It  was  a  scene  of  the 
wildest  enthusiasm.  The  picture  of  the  Em- 
peror is  a  vivid  memory.  He  did  not  bow  once 
in  acknowledgment  of  the  shouts  of  the  crowd. 
The  Crown  Prince  nodded,  and  his  wife  nodded 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Heir  179 

and  smiled  continually,  but  tlie  Emperor  sat 
with  one  hand  at  his  golden  helmet,  stern  and 
inscrutable,  a  figure  of  destiny.  There  was  not 
during  the  whole  time  the  faintest  flicker  of  a 
smile. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  KAISER  AND  RELIGION 

"God  liveth  as  of  old.     Our  great  ally  still  reigneth." 
— The  Kaiser. 

One  can  laugh  at  the  vain  Kaiser,  with  his 
countless  uniforms  and  his  "fixed"  moustache. 
One  can  wonder  at  the  protean  Kaiser,  striving 
to  show  the  chief  exponents  of  a  cultured  race 
the  true  inwardness  of  the  finer  arts.  One  can 
despise  the  brutal  Kaiser,  making  mirth  of  the 
humiliation  of  his  best  friends.  One  can  ad- 
mire the  paternal  Kaiser,  sore  at  heart  in  a  for- 
eign land  till  he  can  rejoin  the  wife  and  the 
young  ones.  One  can  pity  the  duped  Kaiser, 
surrounded  by  a  host  of  subtle  and  evil  flat- 
terers. One  can  scorn  the  weak  Kaiser,  swear- 
ing to  devote  his  life  to  the  maintenance  of 
peace,  pursuing  that  object  with  blusterous 
threats  backed  by  an  untold  aggregation  of  or- 
ganised force,  and  finally  making  the  great  re- 
nunciation because  his  son  had  stolen  from  him 
the  esteem  of  a  gross  warrior  race.  Finally, 
one  can  shudder  at  William  the  War  Lord,  de- 
liberately loosing  on  a  stunned  world  his  bestial 

180 


The  Kaiser  and  Religion  181 

legions,  and  urging  them  on  to  fresh  infamies 
with  examples  drawn  from  the  worst  barbarities 
of  the  pre-Christian  era. 

"What  human  sentiment  is  left,  then,  for  the 
Kaiser  who  claims  the  active  aid  of  an  Omnip- 
otent Creator  when  caught  in  the  very  act  of 
profaning  God's  holy  house? 

It  is  rarely  fitting  that  the  relations  of  any 
human  being  with  the  Supreme  should  be  made 
the  subject  of  discussion  and  conjecture.  These 
are  days  when  many  are  renewing  such  rela- 
tions with  a  profound  humility  and  a  sense  of 
unbounded  littleness.  A  new  era  in  the  world's 
history  has  dawned,  an  era  in  which  no  man  can 
dare  to  judge  his  fellow. 

Yet  the  imagination  of  the  Christian  world 
has  not  been  arrested  so  much  by  the  spectacle 
of  rending  bombs  thrown  on  harmless  women 
and  children,  of  drunken  men  carousing  before 
Church  altars,  and  of  all  the  other  unnameable 
atrocities  of  the  time,  as  of  the  cause  and  in- 
stigator of  these  doings  claiming  God  as  his  Ally 
in  their  perpetration.  Everywhere  men  and 
women  are  discussing  these  things  in  shocked 
undertones.  There  need  be  no  excuse,  then,  if 
they  are  considered  in  such  a  book  as  this. 

The  Kaiser's  career,  his  life,  his  sermons  and 


182  The  Real  Kaiser 

speeches  warrant  the  belief  that  in  the  procla- 
mation that  God  is  with  him  he  is  sincere,  and 
not  a  brazen  hypocrite,  impiously  committing 
the  unpardonable  sin  in  the  face  of  an  attentive 
world. 

He  stands  at  the  head  of  a  proud  nation  that 
a  century  ago  was  not.  He  is  the  supreme  ruler 
of  65,000,000  people  who  have  created  a  mighty 
Empire  out  of  a  host  of  contemptible  principali- 
ties. In  the  history  of  that  century  there  is 
nothing  to  record  for  Germany  but  a  series  of 
miraculous  successes. 

By  war  Germany  was  made  a  nation,  and  by 
such  wars  as  the  world  has  never  known. 
Seven  weeks  sufficed  to  crush  Austria ;  in  a  few 
months  proud  France  was  humbled  in  the  dust. 
The  German  soldier  of  those  days  marched  to 
battle  like  the  Ironsides  of  Cromwell,  with 
hymns  in  his  mouth,  the  marvellous  hymns  of 
Martin  Luther. 

^ '  Ein '  f este  Berg  ist  unser  Gott ' '  ( Our  God  is 
a  tower  of  strength),  they  chanted,  and  had 
reason  to  believe  it,  for  they  fought  only  to  win. 
A  hundred  times  the  Kaiser  has  asserted  that 
the  God  of  Battles  always  turned  the  day  for 
Germany. 


The  Kaiser  and  Religion  183 

Preaching  on  his  yacht,  the  Hohenzollern,  at 
the  time  when  a  German  force  had  been  des- 
l^atched  to  China,  he  took  his  text  from  Exodus 
xvii. 

''It  came  to  pass,  when  Moses  held  np  his 
hand,  that  Israel  prevailed,  and  when  he  let 
down  his  hand  Amalek  prevailed." 

The  discourse  was  a  confident  appeal  to  the 
God  of  Battles  for  help  for  the  German  arms, 
and  reached  its  climax  in  an  amazing  passage : 
''Yes,  the  ancient  God  still  lives!  The  great 
Ally  still  rules.  Our  God  is  a  strong  tower ;  the 
Holy  God,  who  will  not  let  wickedness  triumph, 
but  will  uphold  His  cause  against  an  unholy  peo- 
ple ;  the  Almighty  God  who  breaks  through  the 
strongest  walls  as  though  they  were  cobwebs, 
and  scatters  the  masses  like  sand." 

One  other  conception  of  the  Deity  recurs  in 
the  Kaiser's  speeches  and  sermons,  and  that  is 
of  the  revelation  of  His  goodness  through  the 
works  of  Nature.  Some  of  the  passages  deal- 
ing with  this  topic  are  remarkable  for  their  elo- 
quence and  beauty.  Preaching  on  the  deck  of 
his  yacht  he  took  his  text  from  the  104th 
Psalm : 

"Bless  the  Lord,  0  my  soul.     0  Lord  my 


184  The  Real  Kaiser 

God,  Thou  art  very  great;  Who  coverest  Thy- 
self with  light  as  with  a  garment,  Who  stretch- 
est  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain. ' ' 

In  the  sermon  occur  many  fine  passages,  of 
which  the  following  is  an  example : 

''At  home  the  church  bells  are  ringing  now, 
and  the  organ  is  pealing.  Here  there  is  another 
ringing,  and  another  sound  runs  about  us.  Yet 
it  is  only  a  ground  tone  that  runs  through  the 
melody  here  as  there,  and  says:  'Come  and  let 
us  worship  and  bow  down ;  let  us  fall  upon  our 
knees  before  the  Lord  our  maker. '  On  the  high 
seas  we  learn  this  more  emphatically,  and  he 
who  does  not  learn  it  here  will  never  learn  it  at 
all.  The  praise  of  God  out  of  the  book  of  na- 
ture; that  is  written  all  over  our  text." 

It  is  not  difficult  in  both  these  sermons,  and 
indeed  in  all  the  Kaiser's  religious  discourses, 
to  trace  the  source  of  his  inspiration. 

"I  of  ten  study  the  Bible,"  he  said  to  Pastor 
Stolle  of  Schirmenitz;  "and  I  love  to  read  it 
every  night.  The  Bible  lies  on  a  table  beside 
my  bed.  I  find  the  most  beautiful  thoughts  ex- 
pressed in  it." 

The  Kaiser's  Bible  is,  of  course,  the  noble 
translation  made  by  Martin  Luther,  which 
fixed  a  standard  for  written  German.     Those 


The  Kaiser  and  Religion  185 

who  know  the  German  Bible  will  realise  how  the 
stress  of  the  time  comes  out  in  its  pages.  Our 
own  glorious  English  Bible  was  translated  by 
peaceful  scholars,  attuned  by  circumstance  to 
its  message  of  peace  and  hope.  In  no  version 
are  the  promises  of  redemption  more  grandly 
emphasised. 

But  Luther's  Bible  was  the  work  of  a  fighter, 
and  the  grandest  renderings  it  contains  of  the 
original  are  the  warlike  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Those  are  the  passages  that  constantly 
emerge  from  the  Kaiser's  talks  on  sacred 
things.  Passages  threatening  destruction  to 
the  enemies  of  God's  chosen  people,  and  pass- 
ages exalting  the  God  of  Battles,  who  fought 
actively  for  His  people  and  brought  their  foes 
to  confusion. 

In  the  progress  of  the  German  people  in 
peace  the  Kaiser  saw  the  hand  of  God  revealed 
no  less  plainly  than  by  their  victories  on  the 
field  of  battle.  That  progress  in  the  teeth  of 
difficulty  was  the  miracle  of  the  second  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  Kaiser  constantly 
refers  to  this  achievement,  never  failing  to  at- 
tribute it  to  the  goodness  of  God. 

But  never  once  does  he  strike  the  note  of  hu- 
mility.    One  seeks  in  vain  for  some  sign  of  the 


186  The  Real  Kaiser 

humble  and  the  contrite  heart.  The  Kaiser 
vaunts  the  God  of  Battles,  who  brought  His  peo- 
ple to  victory.  He  openly  boasts  of  the  Crea- 
tor as  a  commercial  asset  of  Germany.  The 
thought  swells  him  with  pride  and  haughtiness, 
but  never  with  a  doubt  of  his  worthiness  for  so 
great  Divine  favour.  This  is  supreme  arro- 
gance, but  it  is  not  hypocrisy;  say  rather,  it  is 
religious  fanaticism  of  the  most  dangerous  kind. 

With  unthinkable  insolence  he  claims  the  con- 
tinuous protection  of  the  God  by  whose  Divine 
will  he  says  he  rules  supreme ;  he  claims  it  not 
as  a  suppliant,  but  as  a  confident  creditor. 

"I  place  my  whole  Empire,  my  whole  people, 
my  whole  army,  myself  and  my  family  under 
the  protection  of  Him  who  said:  'Heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away;  but  My  words  shall  not 
pass  away. '  ' ' 

The  Kaiser's  ancestors  rode  away  to  the 
Cnisades  shouting:  "Paiens  ont  Tort;  Chre- 
tiens ont  Droit"  (''God  fights  for  Christians, 
and  for  Pagans  only  the  Power  of  Evil").  In 
the  same  spirit  the  Catholic  and  Protestant 
Princes  of  Germany  entered  upon  the  barbari- 
ties of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The  crowning 
impiety  was  left  for  the  Kaiser,  who  openly 
avows  that  God,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  will  bring 


The  Kaiser  and  Religion  187 

His  cliosen  people  of  Germany  to  the  first  place 
in  this  world,  even  through  a  self-created  welter 
of  blood  and  torture.  It  has  remained  for  him 
to  commit  the  greatest  wrong  ever  perpetrated 
in  the  name  of  Christianity,  exulting  the  while 
in  the  covering  shield  of  "Our  good  old  God." 

Quern  Dens  vult  perdere,  prius  dementat. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  KAISER  AND  HIS  CREATURES 

"Camerilla  is  the  name  for  a  hideous  foreign  plant,  and 
the  effort  to  implant  it  into  Germany  has  always  been 
attended  with  great  detriment  to  the  nation." — von  Buelow. 

Since  the  War  began  the  whole  venomous  hos- 
tility of  Germany  has  been  concentrated  upon 
England.  From  the  meanest  peasant  under 
arms  to  the  Kaiser  himself,  every  German  is 
anxious  to  take  a  summary  vengeance  upon  this 
country,  for  what  they  choose  to  term  its  treach- 
ery. Their  bitterness  is  the  bitter  hate  of  a 
bully  who  suddenly  finds  himself  thrashed  and 
humiliated  before  a  crowd  by  an  individual 
whom  he  supposed  the  meekest  and  most  inof- 
fensive person  present. 

This  consistent  underrating  of  the  power  and 
intelligence  of  the  British  race  is  due  to  a  va- 
riety of  circumstances,  first  among  which  is  the 
idiotic  self-satisfaction  of  the  Germans  them- 
selves. It  also  proceeds  from  the  very  genuine 
desire  on  our  part  to  keep  the  peace  with  Ger- 
many, and  by  our  frank  expression  of  our  own 

188 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Creatures      180 

differences  of  opinion  internally.  It  must  fur- 
ther be  remembered  that  the  German,  in  his 
gnawing  envy  of  the  advantages  which  we  un- 
doubtedly enjoy  through  no  particular  merit 
of  our  own,  has  chosen  to  shut  his  eyes  to  the 
spiritual  force  which  impels  many  of  our  acts 
as  a  nation,  and  to  attribute  them  to  the  blind 
selfishness  which  is  the  mainspring  of  all  Ger- 
man action.  Hence  Germany's  total  and  fatal 
misunderstanding  of  the  attitude  of  Great 
Britain. 

The  Kaiser  himself  should  have  laiown  bet- 
ter ;  and  for  the  greater  part  of  his  reign  he  has 
shown  that  in  his  saner  moments  he  did  know 
better.  He  is  half  an  Englishman  himself,  and 
has  spent  a  considerable  time  in  this  country. 
He  is  familiar  with  the  outlook  of  representative 
Englishmen,  and  has  had  the  best  opportunity 
for  ascertaining  that  they  are  neither  poltroons 
nor  blind  fools,  whatever  the  halfpenny  papers 
may  have  chosen  to  write  about  them  in  time  of 
peace.  He  has  shown  himself  proud  of  his  Eng- 
lish blood;  he  formerly  missed  no  opportunity 
of  claiming  his  relationship  with  our  own  royal 
family;  it  was  his  custom  when  in  this  country 
to  sign  himself,  in  visiting  books  and  even  in 
letters,  not  as  Wilhelm,  but  William. 


190  The  Real  Kaiser 

To  bring  himself  to  the  level  of  the  ignorance 
of  his  subjects,  it  must  have  been  necessary  for 
him  to  indulge  in  a  course  of  wilful  self-decep- 
tion extending  over  a  period  of  some  years. 
Some  account  of  his  method  of  keeping  in  touch 
with  current  news  and  opinion  throughout  the 
world  has  already  been  given.  The  Press 
Bureau  controlled  by  Geheimrat  Hamann  has 
been  an  exceedingly  useful  institution  for  him, 
but  its  uses  were  capable  of  being  converted  into 
dangerous  ones  in  the  very  moment  that  he 
yielded  to  the  desire  only  to  see  things  as  he 
wished  them  to  appear. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  Press 
Bureau  has  recently  employed  itself  to  this  end. 
Nothing  could  be  more  eloquent  of  the  fact  than 
his  ignorance  of  the  articles  written  by  Maxi- 
milian Harden,  and  the  charges  levelled  by  that 
writer  against  the  camanlla  which  surrounded 
the  Emperor.  Of  those  charges  William  him- 
self remained  in  ignorance  while  all  Germany 
was  discussing  them,  and  it  needed  the  extreme 
action  of  the  Crown  Prince  to  bring  them  under 
his  notice.  In  another  instance  he  was  shown 
to  have  been  utterly  misled  as  to  the  character 
and  capabilities  of  a  tenant  farmer,  who  had 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Creatures      191 

recourse  to  the  law  courts  to  contest  an  eject- 
ment, with  the  result  that  an  Imperial  apology 
was  finally  tendered  to  him.  These,  and  similar 
cases,  have  been  the  subject  of  much  comment  in 
Germany  itself,  where  the  opinion  was  openly 
expressed  that  the  Kaiser  was  abandoning  him- 
self to  the  influence  of  a  group  of  irresponsible 
advisers. 

The  contempt  for  Great  Britain  which  these 
creatures  of  the  Kaiser  have  so  openly  dis- 
played is  very  genuinely  held  by  them.  It  has 
been  nurtured  on  the  reports  of  the  German  se- 
cret service,  a  service  as  extensive  as  it  has 
proved  incompetent.  The  acknowledged  Ger- 
man outlay  on  espionage  is  £780,000  a  year  in 
times  of  peace,  but  this  does  not  constitute  any- 
thing like  the  total  of  the  money  devoted  to  this 
purpose.  Every  German  citizen  in  a  foreign 
land  is  held  at  the  disposal  of  the  government, 
for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  information  likely 
to  be  useful.  The  Kaiser's  intimacy  with  the 
great  capitalists  and  commercial  magnates  of 
Germany  is  not  wholly  unconnected  with  the  ad- 
vancement of  German  interests  abroad,  by 
means  that  would  be  thought  unworthy  by  hon- 
ourable British  merchants.     German  consuls. 


192  The  Real  Kaiser 

and  even  German  ministers,  cannot  be  held 
blameless  of  this  dishonour;  it  is  an  accepted 
thing  in  all  classes  of  German  life. 

*' Where  are  your  spies  I"  asked  the  Crown 
Prince  of  our  Ambassador,  when  he  wished  to 
insult  him  at  a  dinner.  He  referred  to  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  attaches  at  the  British  Embassy 
in  Berlin. 

German  belief  that  England  has  fallen  into  a 
selfish  and  decadent  sloth  is  almost  pathetic. 
I  have  often  had  it  proved  to  me  most  conclu- 
sively, without  caring  to  say  one  word  in  contra- 
diction of  the  theory.  I  fancy  most  British  folk 
in  Germany  have  preferred  to  let  such  state- 
ments go  by  default.  A  favourite  argument 
was  our  indifference  to  competitive  sport.  The 
Germans  were  looking  forward  to  the  Olympic 
games  to  show  us  what  culture  could  do  for  a 
race  of  supermen,  on  what  they  considered  our 
own  ground  of  sporting  pre-eminence.  They 
were  wildly  angry  because  we  would  not  begin  to 
get  ready  for  this  great  event  years  beforehand ; 
and  the  refusal  of  the  nation  to  subscribe  £100,- 
000,  or  even  100,000  pence,  to  that  end  was  ad- 
vanced as  evidence  of  our  decadence  and  lack 
of  culture. 

Besides,  we  were  a  decadent  race.     Had  not 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Creatures      193 

Mr.  Kipling  said  we  fawned  on  the  younger 
nation  for  men  who  could  shoot  and  ridel 
That  is  a  favourite  quotation  in  Germany. 
And  Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  Lord  Roberts,  had 
not  the  warnings  of  these  great  men  gone  un- 
heeded? Did  not  King  George  himself  implore 
us  to  Wake  Up,  without  any  apparent  response! 
All  the  host  of  professors  and  generals  who  have 
been  writing  books  about  the  things  Gennany 
is  just  about  to  do  have  been  infected  with  the 
same  view,  and  have  set  down  Great  Britain  as 
a  negligible  quantity.  It  never  occurred  to  a 
single  German,  high  or  low,  that  a  nation  that 
did  not  care  twopence  about  the  Olympic  games 
would  attach  so  much  importance  to  its  treaty 
obligations  with  a  little  place  like  Belgium. 
The  Germans  are  still  frankly  amazed  at  our 
*' treachery"  in  regard  to  the  "little  scrap  of 
paper. '  ^ 

But  there  was  one  German  who  ought  to  have 
known,  and  who  showed  in  1911  that  he  did 
know.  Sooner  than  accept  the  consequences  of 
war  with  Great  Britain  in  1911,  the  Kaiser  ac- 
cepted the  humiliation  of  Agadir.  He  was  then 
under  no  hallucination  about  our  holding  to  our 
pledged  word.  He  stood  alone  in  his  belief  in 
the  honour  and  in  the  might  of  Great  Britain. 


194  The  Beat  Kaiser 

''He  alone  kept  the  peace,"  said  one  of  his  own 
ministers,  Delbrueck;  and  it  was  true. 

The  subtle  degeneration  that  has  taken  place 
in  the  Kaiser  since  then  is  only  too  apparent. 
It  is  proclaimed  aloud  by  the  recent  photo- 
graphs that  have  been  taken  of  him,  with  their 
coarsening  of  the  lower  lines  of  the  face.  His 
inordinate  vanity,  and  the  arrogant  flattery  of 
his  creatures,  have  permitted  him  to  obscure  the 
keen  intellect  that  formerly  was  the  only  Ger- 
man measure  of  the  true  relation  between  Ger- 
many and  Great  Britain.  What  he  recognised 
in  1911,  he  ignored  in  1914. 

Even  he  was  not  prepared  for  the  full  conse- 
quences of  that  mistake  in  ignoring  Great  Brit- 
ain; Englishmen  themselves  were  not  pre- 
pared, and  few  of  them  appear  yet  to  recognise 
the  extent  of  our  own  readiness.  Consider  what 
has  happened  in  the  two  months  of  August 
and  September,  and  estimate  the  effect  of  the 
series  of  numbing  blows  inflicted  on  German 
power,  every  one  proceeding  directly  from 
Great  Britain.  I  do  not  wish  to  exalt  this  na- 
tion unduly  above  those  which  are  allied  to  us 
in  the  struggle ;  the  more  especially  as  those  na- 
tions have  been  called  upon  to  make  sacrifices, 
compared  to  which  those  we  have  made  our- 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Creatures      195 

selves,  great  tliongh  they  be,  are  up  to  the  pres- 
ent comparatively  trifling.  But  it  is  the  deca- 
dent slothful  nation,  the  people  which  confessed 
its  own  unreadiness  for  battle,  which  has  struck 
the  forceful  blows  at  Germany's  might  and 
pride. 

It  was  nothing  that  we  owned  the  largest  and 
most  effective  battle  fleet ;  but  it  was  a  miracle 
that  the  fleet  should  have  been  found,  when  the 
war-cloud  burst,  assembled  as  a  fighting  force 
in  ,some  place  unknown  to  the  Kaiser's  most 
confident  spies.  And  when  it  was  revealed,  the 
place  was  the  right  place.  That  was  an  ex- 
ample of  British  '' treachery. "  It  was  nothing 
that  we  possessed  a  standing  Army,  small  but 
highly  organised ;  but  it  was  unexpected  that 
the  whole  of  that  army  could  immediately  be 
spared  for  service  abroad.  That  it  should  have 
been  possible  to  land  that  army  on  the  battle- 
field within  a  few  days,  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  man,  and  without  any  interference  on  the 
part  of  Germany's  £200,000,000  fleet;  that  was 
another  example  of  British  **  treachery. " 

How  was  it  that  from  every  British  Colony 
there  went  forth  an  expedition  of  self-reliant 
men,  chuckling  at  the  chance  of  hauling  down 
the  German  flag  where  it  had  been  planted  with 


196  The  Real  Kaiser 

so  mucli  expenditure  of  effort  and  treasure  in 
remote  parts  of  the  world?  In  some  places 
they  co-operated  with  French  forces,  striking 
swift  sure  blows  here  and  there.  Germany  ar- 
gues correctly,  that  they  must  have  been  ready ; 
and  once  more  breathes  the  word  '  *  treachery. ' ' 

Half  a  million  young  men  have  volunteered 
for  military  service,  and  behind  them  stand  half 
a  million  more;  and  in  reserve  are  still  many 
millions  of  willing  volunteers.  That  we  might 
have  expected  in  so  good  a  cause.  But  whence 
have  been  drawn  the  rifles  and  equipments  for 
all  these  new  soldiers.  I  confess  their  ready 
appearance  has  amazed  me  more  than  any  other 
of  the  wonders  of  these  days.  No  more  dismal 
evidence  for  the  German  agents  of  our  readi- 
ness, even  for  so  great  a  struggle  as  this,  could 
have  been  offered.  It  is  organisation,  some- 
thing they  understand ;  and  again  they  raise  the 
cry  of  treachery. 

I  saw  recently  a  band  of  5,000  young  men  at 
their  drill ;  the  young  men  who  had  been  too  in- 
different to  bother  about  the  Olympic  contest  in 
the  Berlin  stadium.  They  had  come  from  our 
Universities  and  Public  Schools,  where  more 
than  half  of  them  had  received  the  training  of 
budding  British  officers.     Their  cherished  pas- 


The  Kaiser  and  His  Creatures      197 

times  were  too  sacred  to  theni  to  be  made  into 
an  international  gallery  play ;  but  they  were  one 
and  all  content  to  give  themselves  in  the  hum- 
blest capacity  for  a  matter  that  was  very  dear 
to  them,  the  honour  of  their  country.  Straight, 
trained  bodies  and  alert,  trained  minds,  quiet 
young  men  with  good  British  faces  and  not  a 
sign  of  military  swagger ;  they  were  giving  their 
whole  attention  to  the  matter  of  making  the 
finest  regiment  of  soldiers  the  world  shall  see 
since  the  glorious  days  of  Greece. 

How  I  wished  some  of  my  Gennan  friends 
could  see  that  concrete  answer  to  their  argu- 
ment of  British  decadence,  and  to  their  stupid 
belief  in  the  loss  of  British  prestige.  It  would 
have  convinced  them  of  their  childish  blunder,  a 
conviction  that  must  still  be  painfully  enforced 
upon  them. 

But  the  Kaiser  is  in  no  need  of  such  evidence. 
He  is  already  fully  aware  of  the  fatal  conse- 
quences of  his  self-deceit.  He  has  already  dis- 
played all  the  chagrin  of  a  man  who  has  fallen 
into  irretraceable  error  with  his  eyes  fully 
opened.  He  has  proved  as  much  by  the  poi- 
soned malice  of  his  unsoldierly  order  to  extermi- 
nate the  whole  British  Army.  Great  general 
he  is  not,  but  the  veriest  novice  in  the  art  of 


198  The  Real  Kaiser 

war  knows  that  in  that  way  no  great  victories 
are  won.  Only  the  conscious  leader  of  an  un- 
just and  a  lost  cause  would  have  given  such  a 
command. 

Did  the  Kaiser  give  it?     Then  the  less  Kaiser 
he  I 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  KAISER  AS  SEA  LORD 

"  Our  future  lies  upon  the  water." — The  Kaiser  opening 
the  new  port  of  Stettin,  1890. 

""We  must  grasp  the  trident." — The  Kaiser  at  Kiel. 

Eaely  in  the  course  of  the  great  war  we  have 
learned  by  experience  that  the  German  navy  is 
no  -mere  aggregation  of  ships,  the  result  of 
lavish  expenditure  of  money.  It  is  a  highly 
organised  fighting  force,  directed  by  skilful  of- 
ficers and  manned  by  brave  and  skilful  sailors. 
Those  of  its  cruisers  left  upon  the  high  seas  to 
harry  British  commerce  have  defied  their  pur- 
suers, though  acting  in  the  face  of  difficulties 
of  coaling  and  provisioning  that  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. Their  captains  have  proved  cour- 
teous and  even  chivalrous  foes,  as  becomes 
brave  and  skilful  seamen. 

The  main  fleet,  hemmed  in  by  a  superior  force, 
and  threatened  from  behind  by  the  Eussian 
squadron  in  the  Baltic,  has  waged  uneven  war 
with  patience  and  skill,  giving  as  good  as  it  got, 
and  displaying  a  dash  and  certainty  in  its  rare 

199 


200  The  Real  Kaiser 

sallies  which  compelled  the  admiration  of  its 
more  experienced  foes.  One  incident  smirches 
the  record  of  the  German  navy  up  to  date,  the 
firing  by  the  officers  of  a  sinking  cruiser  npon 
their  own  men,  when  the  latter  had  jumped 
overboard,  and  were  attempting  to  save  their 
lives.  That  incident  is  explained  by  the  fact 
that  the  story  of  the  Birkenhead  is  the  example 
chosen  for  the  men  of  the  German  navy,  and 
that  all  are  enjoined  to  go  down  with  a  lost  ship, 
rather  than  be  saved  by  the  mercy  of  a  trium- 
phant foe. 

The  German  navy  is  the  work  of  the  brain  of 
the  Kaiser  himself,  and  of  his  own  chosen  right- 
hand  man,  the  great  Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  the 
German  Minister  of  Marine.  The  origin  of  the 
navy  of  to-day  is  related  by  Prince  Buelow  in 
Imperial  Germany,  in  which  he  tells  how  he  was 
entrusted  with  his  share  of  the  task,  when  he  ac- 
cepted the  Chancellorship  from  the  Kaiser  on 
the  yacht  Hohenzollern,  at  Kiel,  on  June  28, 
1907. 

A  new  Navy  Bill  was  brought  before  the 
Reichstag  on  November  27  of  that  year,  which 
provided  for  the  construction  of  seven  battle- 
ships, two  large  and  seven  small  cruisers.  The 
Bill  was  worded:     ''Without  prejudice  to  the 


The  Kaiser  as  Sea  Lord  201 

rights  of  the  Reichstag,  and  without  demanding 
the  imposition  of  new  taxes,  the  allied  govern- 
ments are  not  pursuing  an  aimless  policy  with 
regard  to  the  navy;  their  sole  object  is  to  cre- 
ate within  a  definite  time  a  national  fleet,  merely 
of  such  strength  and  power  as  to  protect  effec- 
tively the  naval  interests  of  the  Empire." 

That  Bill  marked  a  new  era  in  German  naval 
affairs.  Up  till  then  no  regular  policy  of  ship- 
building had  been  adopted,  but  from  that  time 
forward  Germany  brought  forward  an  annual 
programme  of  shipbuilding,  which  rapidly 
threatened  competition  with  that  of  Great  Brit- 
ain itself.  This  scheme  for  a  powerful  Ger- 
man navy  was  dearer  to  the  heart  of  the  Kaiser 
than  any  other  of  his  plans  for  the  aggrandise- 
ment of  Germany. 

His  immense  business  capacity  was  shown  in 
the  planned  adaptation  of  private  shipbuilding 
yards  for  the  purpose  of  warship  construction. 
The  building  of  Germany's  merchant  marine 
was  not  only  made  a  great  industrial  undertak- 
ing, but  at  the  same  time  a  great  scheme  for  na- 
tional defence,  and  even  aggression.  In  the  es- 
tablishment of  these  shipbuilding  yards  the 
Kaiser  took  the  keenest  personal  interest,  and 
it  was  owing  to  his  intervention  that  all  were 


202  The  Real  Kaiser 

established  on  a  scale  of  such  importance  that 
the  rapid  building  of  the  largest  warships  was 
made  possible  at  so  many  of  them. 

The  extent  of  Germany's  possibilities  for  the 
rapid  building  of  warships  was  revealed  by 
Count  Eeventlow  in  an  appendix  to  his  book 
Weltfrieden  oder  Weltkrieg  {World-Peace  or 
World-War)  (1907).  In  answer  to  the  Count's 
questions,  Krupp's  Germania  yards  replied  that 
they  were  capable  of  completing  a  large  battle- 
ship or  cruiser  within  a  period  of  twenty-four 
to  thirty  months,  and  that  the  seven  slipways  at 
their  disposal  would  enable  them  to  lay  down  at 
least  two  of  these  vessels  every  year.  The 
Howaldts  works,  also  at  Kiel,  returned  a  similar 
reply,  and  guaranteed  to  deliver  one  large  bat- 
tleship or  cruiser  every  year  after  the  first  two 
years.  The  mechanical  appliances  available  at 
Kiel  were  of  the  most  modern  type,  and  skilled 
labour  was  plentiful.  The  Vulkan  yards  at 
Stettin  stated  that  they  could  lay  down  two  bat- 
tleships of  18,000  tons  each,  and  two  cruisers  of 
15,000  tons  every  year.  If  the  guns  and  armour 
were  promptly  delivered  by  the  makers,  they 
too  would  be  able  to  complete  the  ships  within 
twenty-four  or  thirty  months.    When  the  Vul- 


The  Kaiser  as  Sea  Lord  203 

kans'  new  yards  at  Hamburg  had  been  opened 
tbeir  productive  capacity  would  be  increased  50 
to  75  per  cent. 

The  firm  of  Blohm  and  Voss  estimated  that 
they  could  lay  down  two  large  ships,  either  bat- 
tleships or  cruisers,  every  year,  and  that  they 
could  deliver  them  within  two  or  two  and  a  half 
years  if  a  continuous  succession  of  orders  was 
assured.  Herr  Schichau,  of  Schichau's  works 
at  Danzig  and  Elbing,  replied  that,  if  necessary, 
he  could  ^'comfortably  accommodate  four  bat- 
tleships of  18,000  tons  each  upon  the  stocks,  and 
could  also  at  the  same  time  carry  on  the  work  of 
fitting  out  two  or  three  similar  vessels.  The 
Weser  Shipbuilding  Company  drew  attention  to 
its  new  yards,  and  pledged  its  ability  to  lay  down 
two  battleships  and  two  cruisers  simultane- 
ously, and  to  complete  them  within  a  period  of 
from  twenty-four  to  thirty  months. 

This  report  was  made  in  1907,  so  that  within 
ten  years  of  the  initiation  of  the  German  navy 
scheme,  arrangements  had  been  perfected  for 
competing  on  equal  terms  with  Great  Britain 
in  a  race  in  the  building  of  warships.  In  this 
remarkable  progress  the  Kaiser  and  Admiral 
von  Tirpitz  were  assisted  by  the  operations  of 


204  The  Beat  Kaiser 

tlie  German  Navy  League,  an  organisation  with 
a  very  popular  seaman  at  his  head,  Admiral 
von  Koester. 

In  a  very  few  years  the  League,  started  with 
a  membership  of  a  few  thousands,  could  boast 
a  million  members,  all  of  whom  were  actively 
concerned  in  advancing  the  development  of  the 
German  Navy.  Their  spheres  of  influence  were 
many  and  varied,  and  it  was  owing  to  the  exer- 
tions of  the  League  that  the  Reichstag  was  in- 
duced to  pass  the  yearly  increasing  naval  es- 
timates without  any  dissentient  voice,  even 
when  a  sum  of  £23,000,000  was  demanded. 

This  naval  expansion  could,  of  course,  only 
be  accomplished  if  Germany  was  free  from  in- 
terference on  the  part  of  England.  Had  the 
situation  been  reversed,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  weaker  naval  power  would  never  have 
been  given  the  opportunity  to  build  ships  at 
such  an  ominously  rapid  rate.  Peaceful  efforts 
were  made  from  this  side  to  limit  the  rate  of 
Germany's  naval  expansion,  but  they  were  re- 
jected without  any  artifice  on  Germany's  part. 
The  only  alternative  was  a  shipbuilding  activity 
on  our  own  part  corresponding  almost  in  pro- 
portion to  that  of  Germany. 

Other  nations  were  forced  to  follow  suit,  so 


The  Kaiser  as  Sea  Lord  205 

that  the  sudden  naval  activity  promoted  by  the 
Kaiser  was  responsible  for  such  an  accelera- 
tion of  naval  armament  as  the  world  has  never 
seen  since  the  days  of  the  great  Armada.  The 
position  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1914  was 
that  Germany  had  a  Navy,  the  strength  of 
which  was  nominally  represented  in  the  follow- 
ing figures : — 

Dreadnoughts,  20;  other  battleships,  19; 
cruisers,  52;  torpedo  craft,  152;  submarines, 
24. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Navy  was  stronger 
than  these  figures  show  at  the  time  of  the  actual 
outbreak  of  hostilities. 

This  vast  organisation  is  controlled  by  Ad- 
miral von  Tirpitz,  possibly  the  most  able  of  the 
lieutenants  the  Kaiser  has  discovered.  Mr. 
Wile  accords  him  first  place  in  that  fascinating 
collection  he  has  made  of  Men  Around  the 
Kaiser,  and  relates  how  a  simple  commoner 
created  a  second  branch  of  national  defence, 
and  now  stands  designated  by  common  acclaim 
as  the  next  Chancellor  of  the  Empire.  This 
has  been  made  possible  by  von  Tirpitz  himself, 
who  has  trained  his  highly  efficient  subordinates 
so  well  that  he  could,  before  the  War,  have 
been  withdrawn  from  the  Admiralty  without 


206  The  Real  Kaiser 

sacrificing  the  efficiency  which  has  characterised 
his  administration.  This  is  the  highest  tribute 
that  can  be  paid  to  any  organiser. 

Tirpitz  makes  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  the 
German  Navy  is  modelled  on  that  of  Great 
Britain,  just  as  German  industrialism  was  orig- 
inally modelled  on  our  own.  The  very  tradi- 
tions of  the  German  Navy,  which  as  a  new 
growth  was  without  traditions  of  its  own,  were 
borrowed  from  the  Navy  that  has  so  long  con- 
trolled the  seas.  The  purpose  of  the  building 
of  this  Armada  has  never  been  hidden;  it  is 
some  day  to  dispute  the  mastery  of  the  seas 
with  its  prototyp'e ;  and  the  fact  was  openly  rec- 
ognised in  the  toast  of  its  officers,  "Am  Tag"; 
— to  the  great  Day  when  that  purpose  may  be 
fulfilled. 

The  nominal  command  of  the  Navy,  in  ac- 
cordance with  Prussian  custom,  is  vested  in  the 
Kaiser's  brother.  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia, 
and  the  Kaiser  himself  has  never  failed  to  dis- 
play an  interest  in  it  quite  equal  to  that  shown 
in  the  German  first  arm  of  the  service,  the 
Army.  In  a  speech  delivered  on  June  15,  1888, 
he  said:  "The  Navy  knows  not  only  that  it 
has  filled  me  with  great  joy  to  belong  to  it 
through  an  external  bond,  but  also  that  from 


J 


The  Kaiser  as  Sea  Lord  207 

my  earliest  youth,  in  complete  agreement  with 
my  dear  brother,  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  a 
warm  and  lively  interest  has  united  me  to  it." 

That  interest  increased  with  the  growth  of 
the  Navy,  and  the  Kaiser  was  never  happier 
than  when  he  could  entertain  his  international 
friends  at  Kiel,  and  display  to  them  the  mar- 
vellous progress  of  his  own  child  of  the  sea. 
Indeed,  his  fondness  for  boats  and-  ships  of 
every  kind  has  been  a  marked  trait  of  his  char- 
acter from  youth  onwards,  and  earned  for  him 
among  his  sailors  another  nickname  among  the 
many  he  has  worn — that  of  ' '  Gondola  Billy. ' ' 

He  has  been  more  than  once  attacked  in  the 
Reichstag  for  his  pretentions  to  naval  knowl- 
edge, one  Socialist  deputy  going  so  far  as  to 
say: — 

''The  Kaiser  is  utterly  unfit  to  command  a 
naval  manoeuvre,  never  having  passed  any  ex- 
amination or  test.  He  is  merely  an  amateur 
sailor."  However  that  may  be,  he  has  the  true 
feeling  for  the  sea  and  understanding  of  naval 
affairs,  has  been  an  enthusiast  in  yachting  from 
an  early  age,  and  in  that  capacity  has  proved 
himself  a  practical  and  daring  sailor. 

The  real  test  of  the  Navy  which  he  has  in- 
duced the  German  people  to  build  at  such  a 


208  The  Real  Kaiser 

sacrifice  of  effort  and  treasure  is  yet  to  be 
made,  but  the  indications  already  given  point 
to  a  display  of  daring  and  bold  fighting  that 
will  justify,  from  the  German  point  of  view,  the 
bold  navy  policy  he  pursued. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  KAISER  AS  WAR  LORD 

"Hurrah  for  the  dry  powder  and  the  sharp  sword." 

"The  best  word  is  a  blow — the  Army  and  the  'i^axy  are 
the  pillars  of  the  State." 

The  Kaiser  occupies  the  same  position  to  the 
German  Army  as  he  does  to  everything  else  in 
Germany.  He  is  the  real  and  authoritative 
head  of  it.  He  is  assisted  by  an  Imperial  Staff 
and  a  War  Cabinet,  and  there  is  also  a  War 
Minister.  All  these  high  appointments  are 
made  by  the  Kaiser  himself,  so  that  he  is  in 
very  fact  the  War  Lord  he  is  represented  to 
be.  The  actual  command  of  the  army  is  as- 
signed to  Prince  Albert  of  Prussia,  but  that  po- 
sition, too,  is  a  gift  in  the  hands  of  the  Kaiser. 
The  military  organisation  he  controls  is  the 
most  perfect  the  world  has  ever  known. 
Prussia  was  the  first  modern  country  to  adopt 
universal  military  service,  the  date  being  1814, 
or  exactly  a  hundred  years  ago;  later  on  con- 
scription became  universal  throughout  Ger- 
many.    The  celebration  of  the  hundredth  an- 

209 


210  The  Real  Kaiser 

niversary  of  tMs  epoch  lias  taken  place  since 
the  war  began,  the  newspapers  throughout  Ger- 
many commenting  upon  it  as  the  main  factor 
in  the  progress  of  the  nation.  Those  who  have 
sought  to  draw  distinctions  between  the  mili- 
tary Prussians  and  the  peaceful  Bavarians  and 
West  Germans  are  referred  to  the  files  of  the 
leading  papers  in  those  districts  for  a  refuta- 
tion of  their  arguments. 

It  is  not  possible  at  this  date  to  state  with 
any  accuracy  the  number  of  men  called  to  arms 
for  the  present  war;  but  an  estimate  has  been 
made  that  6,000,000  were  mobilised  with  incon- 
ceivable rapidity.  In  rapidity  of  action  the 
German  war  machine  stands  unexampled. 
The  plan  for  mobilisation  is  recast  at  varying 
intervals,  never  less  frequently  than  twice  a 
year,  and  the  fact  that  all  the  Railways  of  Ger- 
many are  the  property  of  the  state  makes  this 
rapid  mobilisation  easier. 

A  portion  of  the  actual  mobilisation  was  wit- 
nessed by  Dr.  Poutsma,  who  appears  to  have 
seen  more  than  any  other  British  subject  in 
Germany  at  the  time,  his  Dutch  blood  and  the 
peculiar  relation  in  which  he  stood  to  the  Do- 
mitiion  of  South  Africa,  probably  procuring 
him  this  privilege.     He  has  given  an  account 


The  Kaiser  as  War  Lord  211 

of  what  he  saw  that  bears  the  imprint  of  truth 
on  the  face  of  it.  The  men  walked  into  the 
mobilisation  depots  with  their  personal  belong- 
ings, and  came  out  at  the  other  gate  fully 
equipped  and  uniformed  soldiers;  the  railway 
service  for  the  troops  worked  with  miraculous 
certainty  and  perfection;  and  Germany  was 
able  to  rush  great  armies  over  the  borders  of 
her  enemies'  territories  before  they  could  pre- 
pare anything  like  an  adequate  line  of  defence. 

These  things  have  to  be  recognised  before  we 
can  estimate  what  civilisation  owes  to  Belgium 
and  the  gallant  defenders  of  Liege  for  checking 
a  disaster  that  would  have  swept  the  French 
army  back  to  the  Pyrenees.  The  arrangements 
for  this  swift  appeal  to  arms  were  made  by  the 
Imperial  staff,  and  the  value  of  the  Kaiser's 
own  great  capacity  for  business  organisation 
on  the  grand  scale  is  apparent  in  the  smooth- 
ness of  its  working. 

The  Kaiser,  as  we  have  seen,  has  also  had  a 
very  severe  training  in  practical  soldiering,  and 
esteems  himself  among  the  great  generals  of 
all  time.  It  would  indeed  be  strange  if  the 
qualities  which  make  him  an  impassioned  ora- 
tor, and  impel  him  to  dabble  with  such  zest  in 
all  the  arts,  permitted  him  also  to  excel  in  the 


212  The  Real  Kaiser 

art  of  war.  The  evidence  is  clear  to  the  con- 
trary ;  this  miracle  has  not  happened. 

There  is,  or  was,  a  very  blunt  old  German  gen- 
eral named  von  Stiilpnagel,  who,  in  a  fit  of  dis- 
gust after  the  annual  army  manoeuvres,  ex- 
pressed himself  very  candidly  on  the  subject  of 
the  Kaiser's  command.  It  appears  that  the 
army  commanded  by  the  Kaiser  himself  had  re- 
ceived an  adverse  verdict  from  the  umpires  of 
whom  von  Stiilpnagel  was  one,  and  the  Emperor 
had  made  no  secret  of  his  chagrin.  The  old  gen- 
eral retorted  that  the  Kaiser's  idea  of  military 
operations  consisted  mainly  in  arranging  dra- 
matic cavalry  charges,  more  in  keeping  with 
the  conception  o'f  an  elaborate  military  display 
arranged  by  Max  Keinhardt  than  with  the  root 
principles  of  modern  warfare.  ''Sheer  mili- 
tary nonsense"  was  the  verdict  of  this  candid 
critic.  This  verdict  throws  a  valuable  side- 
light on  the  Kaiser's  instructions  to  his  sol- 
diers. 

For  my  own  part,  I  can  vividly  realise  the 
Kaiser  presiding  at  a  council  of  war,  where  one 
hard-headed  matter-of-fact  old  general  after  an- 
other details  the  perfect  arrangements  made 
for  inflicting  a  swift  and  crushing  blow.  The 
point  is  made  and  insisted  on,  that  there  shall 


The  Kaiser  as  War  Lord  213 

be  no  humanitarian  nonsense  about  the  cam- 
paign when  it  starts.  All  opposition  must  be 
crushed  in  the  very  instant  that  any  sign  of 
it  appears.  Secret  and  elaborate  arrangements 
have  been  made  to  that  end. 

At  Krupp's  have  been  cast,  though  the  out- 
side world  knows  it  not,  guns  such  as  none  else 
ever  dreamed  of,  monstrous  steel  tubes  that  can 
hurl  a  shell  of  more  than  a  ton  weight  for  a 
distance  of  ten  miles.  In  its  huge  parabola, 
this  shell  attains  a  height  of  more  than  half 
a  mile,  and  strikes  with  all  the  impact  given  by 
gravity  after  descending  from  that  height. 
The  impact,  and  the  rendering  explosions  it 
holds,  crumble  the  solid  rock  to  powder;  no 
fort  ever  constructed  can  resist  the  disintegra- 
tion. 

The  Zeppelins,  housed  all  over  the  country, 
have  an  effective  range  of  three  hundred  miles 
from  their  various  bases ;  their  crews  are  all 
skilled  aeronauts,  and  the  machines  are  fur- 
nished with  huge  bombs,  which  can  be  dropped 
from  unassailable  heights,  to  the  utter  destruc- 
tion of  all  beneath.  Bands  of  fire-soldiers  have 
been  organised,  says  another  grim  report, 
some  with  belts  that  are  really  petrol  tanks 
fitted  with  a  spray,  so  that  in  a  few  minutes  a 


214  The  Real  Kaiser 

whole  village  can  be  made  inflammable.  Others 
have  incendiary  bombs,  and  little  tablets  of 
compressed  benzine  to  act  as  kindlers.  All  is 
ready  for  the  work  of  laying  waste  by  fire  and 
sword,  bomb  and  huge  engines  of  destruction. 

Better  still,  says  another  report,  our  trusty 
secret  agents  have  done  their  work  well.  Our 
great  siege  guns  need  elaborate  preparations 
for  their  effective  use,  and  these  are  ready  be- 
forehand. At  Namur,  at  Maubeuge,  anjrwhere 
where  forts  exist  on  our  line  of  march  to  con- 
quest, patriotic  men  have  quietly  acquired  sites 
for  workshops,  or  any  other  plausible  purpose 
that  may  suit  the  locality.  There,  in  the  great- 
est secrecy,  the  concrete  beds  to  hold  the  huge 
siege  guns  have  been  laid  and  are  now  harden- 
ing ;  the  ranges  have  been  accurately  measured. 
Namur  cannot  hold  out  twenty-four  hours;  the 
key  to  Maubeuge  lies  in  our  hands.  The  Ger- 
man patriots  who  have  done  these  things  have 
all  been  decorated  with  the  Iron  Cross.  The 
grim  old  generals  nod;  ''ja  wohl";  all  is  pre- 
pared as  a  matter  of  course.  That  is  the  only 
way  to  make  war. 

But  what  effect  have  these  plans  on  the  quick 
imagination  of  the  Kaiser?  Images  drawn 
from  the  Old  Testament  leap  to  his  mind.     *'It 


Tlie  Kaiser  as  War  Lord  215 

came  to  pass,  when  the  people  heard  the  sound 
of  the  trumpet,  and  the  people  shouted  with 
a  great  shout,  that  the  wall  fell  down  jQat,  so 
that  the  people  went  up  into  the  city,  every 
man  straight  before  him,  and  they  took  the 
city. 

''And  they  utterly  destroyed  all  that  was  in 
the  city,  both  man  and  woman,  young  and  old, 
and  ox  and  sheep  and  ass,  with  the  edge  of  the 
sword. 

"And  they  burnt  the  city  with  fire  and  all 
tha't  was  therein. ' '  Was  he  not  another  Joshua, 
to  whom  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Battles,  had  given 
the  power  to  make  the  walls  of  strong  cities 
fall  down  flat?  Even  as  the  Canaanites  of  old, 
so  must  the  enemies  of  God's  chosen  people  to- 
day perish,  man  and  woman,  young  and  old, 
by  the  edge  of  the  sword  and  by  fire.  The 
Bible  says  so,  and  "The  Bible  is  for  me  a  spring 
whence  I  draw  strength  and  light." 

The  tales  of  the  Huns  occur  to  him;  how 
they,  like  the  modern  Germans,  were  forced  by 
the  need  for  expanding  territory  South  and 
"West,  led  by  the  great  Attila,  after  whom  he 
had  christened  his  second  son  Eitel.  Attila 
gave  and  asked  no  quarters;  he  swept  all  be- 
fore him.    So  in  very  fact  should  the  Germans 


216  The  Real  Kaiser 

of  to-day  wage  their  warfare,  if  it  must  needs 
be. 

But  first  let  the  nations  know  what  war  really 
meant.  No  young  wife,  with  husband  and 
brothers  far  away  in  the  trenches,  ever  imag- 
ined such  vivid  and  true  pictures  of  the  horror 
of  war  as  this  War  Lord.  If  they  knew  what 
was  before  them,  these  inferior  races  would 
make  way,  and  give  Germany  her  just  share  of 
the  world.  The  decadent  British,  who  waged 
war  as  they  played  games,  with  an  eye  on  the 
relies  and  mercy  in  their  hearts  for  the  indi- 
viduals among  their  enemies,  they  could  never 
stand  up  against  this  torment  of  organised  de- 
struction. Surely  they  would  give  way,  if  they 
were  warned  in  time. 

The  Kaiser  knew,  too,  what  never  troubled 
the  hard-headed  old  Prussian  commanders  one 
jot — that  there  would  be  an  outcry  from  all 
civilisation  when  he  let  loose  his  great  engine  of 
torment.  -And  by  every  word  of  warning,  and 
by  all  show  of  ferocity,  he  strove  to  avert  the 
evil  day  as  far  as  he  might.  "Give  peace  in 
my  time,"  was  the  prayer  of  his  inmost  heart. 

His  responsibility  was  all  the  greater,  and 
he  accepted  it  as  fully  as  any  savage  Viking 
of  the  pre-Christian  era.    As  War  Lord  he  de- 


1 


The  Kaiser  as  War  Lord  217 

liberately  descended  to  the  level  of  the  savage, 
and  impressed  on  soldiers  that  they  must  do 
likewise : — 

''When  you  meet  the  foe  you  will  defeat  him. 
No  quarter  will  be  given,  no  prisoners  will  be 
taken.  Let  all  who  fall  into  your  hands  be 
at  your  mercy.  Just  as  the  Huns  a  thousand 
years  ago,  under  the  leadership  of  Etzel 
(Attila),  gained  a  reputation  in  virtue  of  which 
they  still  live  in  historical  traditions,  so  may 
the  name  of  Geimany  become  known  in  such 
a. manner  in  China  that  no  Chinaman  will  ever 
again  even  dare  to  look  askance  at  a  German." 

That  message,  given  to  the  expeditionary 
force  for  China  in  July,  1900,  was  blazoned  forth 
to  the  world  with  the  knowledge  and  approval  of 
the  Kaiser.  The  first  part  of  it  was  circulated 
throughout  Germany  on  postcards.  Now  the 
world  was  to  receive  an  object  lesson  that  would 
scare  any  power  from  ever  wishing  to  encoun- 
ter the  mighty  ruthless  legions  of  the  German 
Army. 

In  the  case  of  England,  he  felt  such  an  object 
lesson  was  certain  of  its  effect.  Soldiers  who 
shrank  from  any  appearance  of  inhumanity, 
even  when  encountering  a  stubborn  and  cun- 
ning enemy,  would  certainly  flinch  from  grim 


218  The  Real  Kaiser 

warfare  of  this  kind.  Besides,  lie  had  seen  the 
British  Army  and  knew  that  it  was  a  negligible 
force.     His  estimate  was  that  of  Bemhardi. 

'^For  a  war  in  Continental  Europe,  we  have 
only  to  take  into  account  the  regular  army  of 
130,000  men  stationed  in  England. 

^'England  can  only  employ  her  regular  army 
in  a  Continental  war  so  long  as  all  is  quiet  in 
the  Colonies." 

^ '  The  Territorial  army  is  270,000  strong,  and 
is  destined  exclusively  for  home  defence.  For 
a  Continental  European  war  it  may  be  left  out 
of  account." 

''The  self-govq.rning  Colonies  have  a  militia 
which  is  sometimes  only  in  process  of  forma- 
tion. They  can  be  completely  ignored  so  far 
as  concerns  any  European  theatre  of  war." 

The  comment  on  these  cocksure  generalisa- 
tions is  that  within  one  month  of  the  sudden 
outbreak  of  hostilities  Great  Britain  had  more 
than  130,000  men  fighting  on  the  Continent; 
that  a  month  later  there  were  highly  efficient 
Territorial  forces  fighting  with  them,  and  that 
70,000  native  Indian  troops  were  on  their  way 
to  the  front;  and  that  in  camp,  or  on  the  way 
to  Europe,  were  quite  50,000  of  the  Colonial 
''militia,"  soldiers  endowed  with  a  spirit  and 


J 


The  Kaiser  as  War  Lord  219 

initiative  sucli  as  the  vivid  imagination  of  the 
Kaiser  has  not  yet  conceived. 

The  German  Colonies,  one  hy  one,  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  despised  colonial  ''mili- 
tia" without  an  effective  blow  being  struck  to 
preserve  them.  And  in  Great  Britain,  a  new 
army  of  500,000  volunteers,  the  very  pick  of 
British  youth,  was  drilling  with  an  enthusiasm 
and  devotion  unknown  in  the  annals  of  war; 
while  behind  them  yet  500,000  more  were  pre- 
paring to  enlist,  as  soon  as  arrangements  could 
bye  made  for  equipping  and  drilling  them. 

All  the  evil  that  is  in  the  Kaiser  comes  out 
when  those  whose  friendship  he  has  sought,  on 
his  own  terms,  refuse  to  strike  with  him  any 
discreditable  bargain.  His  lifelong  hatred  of 
the  Social  Democrats  of  Germany,  the  insult 
he  hurled  at  King  Edward  through  his  friend 
Lord  Esher,  the  renunciation  of  his  British  uni- 
forms and  titles,  are  examples  that  have  been 
given. 

"Any  one  who  resists  me,  him  will  I  smash," 
he  cried  once  in  a  fit  of  grandiloquence.  In  a 
similar  passion  of  devilish  resentment  he  de- 
creed the  utter  annihilation  of  the  British 
Army,  as  soon  as  he  heard  the  incredible  news 
that  one  had  been  landed  in  France. 


220  The  Beat  Kaiser 

*'It  is  my  Royal  and  Imperial  command  that 
you  concentrate  your  energies,  for  the  immedi- 
ate present,  upon  one  single  purpose,  and  that 
is  that  you  address  all  your  skill,  and  all  your 
valour  of  my  soldiers,  to  exterminate  first  the 
treacherous  English  and  to  walk  over  General 
French's  contemptible  little  Army." — Order 
given  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  August  19,  1914. 

If  these  are  the  orders  given  by  the  supreme 
head  of  the  German  army,  there  can  be  no  cause 
for  wonder  that  about  the  methods  of  its  sol- 
diers there  have  grown  up  legends  of  devilish 
inhumanity  far  outrunning  the  terrible  reality. 
These  stories  of- incredible  tortures  and  mu- 
tilations are  credited,  because  the  wild  orders 
of  the  Kaiser  himself  give  them  colour. 

The  grim  record  is  damning  enough.  Civ- 
ilian hostages  shot  by  hundreds,  villages  pil- 
laged and  burned  to  the  ground,  whole  cities 
sacked  and  set  to  the  flames,  ancient  buildings 
and  sacred  cathedrals  given  to  wanton  destruc- 
tion, mock  surrender  to  cover  treacherous  acts ; 
all  these  things  have  been  proved  against  the 
troops  of  the  Kaiser.  The  German  War  Lord, 
by  his  orders  and  his  reasons  given  afterwards, 
has  made  himself  personally  responsible  for 
them. 


The  Kaiser  as  War  Lord  221 

But  the  tales  of  senseless  hideous  mutilation 
are  fables.  They  are  still  believed,  although 
sufficient  time  has  elapsed  for  the  strongest 
proofs  to  have  been  accumulated  of  their  truth, 
if  they  were  true.  No  such  proof  has  been  ob- 
tained. It  has  been  stated,  for  instance,  that 
the  German  soldiers  have  cut  oif  the  hands  of 
nurses,  of  doctors,  of  soldiers,  of  Belgian  non- 
combatants.  A  whole  army  of  photographers 
has  been  sent  to  obtain  actual  pictures  of  such 
outrages.  They  have  shown  us  the  sad  remains 
of  fallen  Louvain,  the  shattered  fabric  of 
Eheims  Cathedral,  the  ruined  villages  of  Bel- 
gium; but  not  one  photograph  of  these  muti- 
lated survivors  of  German  devilment  has  ever 
been  obtained. 

The  only  reason  is  that  such  survivors  do 
not  exist.  When  M.  Vandervelde,  the  Belgian 
socialist  leader  and  a  member  of  the  Govern- 
ment, was  in  this  country  on  his  way  to  America, 
he  told  an  assembly  of  responsible  Englishmen 
a  terrible  tale  of  German  inhumanity  in  Bel- 
gium, his  account  including  some  of  these  in- 
human maimings.  Questioned  as  to  whether 
he  himself  had  witnessed  the  outrages,  or 
whether  he  had  himself  seen  the  victims,  he 
replied  with  all  frankness  that  he  had  not.    He 


222  Tlie  Real  Kaiser 

based  Ms  statements  on  tlie  word  of  reliable 
witnesses  whose  evidence  had  been  taken  by 
a  highly  constituted  legal  board. 

These  supreme  barbarities  are  out  of  tune 
with  the  practical  range  of  the  German  mind. 
They  can  only  be  held  to  have  occurred  when 
some  convincing  proof  of  the  fact  has  been  ob- 
tained. 

But  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  Kaiser  if  they 
have  never  taken  place.  "Extermination"  and 
"no  quarter"  are  ugly  words,  coming  from  the 
head  of  the  State  and  army.  If  the  ignorant 
soldiers  had  been  as  rabid  and  extreme  as  their 
Kaiser,  there  would  by  this  time  have  been 
only  too  strong  evidence  of  outrages  that  would 
shake  the  very  foundation  of  civilisation. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  REAL  KAISER 

"How  art  thou  fallen  from  Heaven,  0  Lucifer,  son  of 
the  morning!  How  art  thou  cut  down  to  the  ground  which 
did  weaken  the  nations!  .  .  . 

"And  thou  shalt  say :  I  will  go  up  to  the  land  of  miwalled 
villages,  I  will  go  to  them  that  are  at  rest,  that  dwell 
safely,  all  of  them  dwelling  without  walls  and  having 
neither  bars  nor  gates. 

"To  take  a  spoil  and  to  take  a  prey;  to  turn  thine  hand 
upon  the  desolate  places  that  are  now  inhabited." — Isaiah 
xiv. 

Some  of  the  many  aspects  of  the  Kaiser  have 
been  presented  in  detail;  they  still  remain  like 
the  sejDarated  pieces  of  an  intricate  puzzle. 
The  difficult  task  of  putting  them  together  must 
be  attempted. 

Two  years  ago  we  hailed  him  as  the  best 
product  of  his  race,  the  head  of  a  warrior  na- 
tion whose  desire  to  expand  by  sheer  aggres- 
sion he  had  kept  in  check  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  To-day  he  is  simply  the  brigand 
chief,  who  has  been  craftily  lying  in  ambush 
during  the  whole  period  of  his  life  for  the  plun- 
der of  Europe.    Such  a  conception  may  fit- 

223 


224  The  Real  Kaiser 

tingly  be  cherished  of  almost  the  whole  of  the 
German  aristocracy,  and  of  the  bulk  of  the 
German  people  as  well,  whether  Prussian  or 
not.  All  Germany  shares  the  same  soul  tex- 
ture, which  is  nothing  very  fine. 

But  William  is  more  than  a  German;  he  is 
half  English ;  almost  the  best  informed  man  of 
his  day ;  widely  travelled ;  a  man  of  keen  imag- 
ination and  quick  appreciation;  a  great  organ- 
iser and  an  orator  of  marvellous  power;  a  lov- 
ing husband ;  an  ardent  patriot. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  account  must  be 
placed  his  stupendous  vanity;  his  passion  for 
autocracy;  the  pYe-Christian  quality  of  his  re- 
ligion; his  inherited  cruelty;  his  total  lack  of 
scruple. 

The  task  he  set  himself  was  impossible  of 
achievement;  the  provision  for  the  new  nation 
he  ruled  of  a  place  among  the  great  Powers 
at  least  equal  to  the  greatest  and  superior  to 
all  the  rest.  Germany  had  come  upon  the 
scene  too  late  for  that  ambition  to  be  realised, 
even  by  force  of  arms.  The  Kaiser's  model 
power.  Great  Britain,  had  only  attained  the 
place  he  sought  by  patiently  preserving  through 
the  centuries  the  stoutness  of  moral  fibre  that 


The  Real  Kaiser  225 

resisted  the  process  of  decay  undergone  by- 
other  world-powers. 

The  Kaiser's  presumptuous  vanity  led  him 
to  attempt  the  work  of  centuries  in  his  own  life- 
time. He  even  hoped  to  accomplish  the  task 
without  resort  to  arms,  which  his  over-quick 
imagination  caused  him  to  dread.  All  the 
good  in  him  that  is  represented  by  his  loving 
fatherhood  rose  in  protest  against  the  shedding 
of  streams  of  blood.  His  very  vanity  and  his 
huge  self-esteem  made  him  picture  himself  as  a 
despot  indeed,  but  a  benevolent  despot. 

He  saw  Germany's  swift  progress  with  a 
pride  that  fed  his  own  inordinate  conceit.  He 
realised,  as  quickly  as  the  most  erudite  of  his 
professors,  that  the  progress  was  a  hothouse 
growth,  and  that  the  plant  must  be  fed  with 
fresh  supplies  from  the  stimulating  source 
which  gave  it  its  original  impetus.  He  sought 
for  fresh  worlds  for  Germany's  peaceful  occu- 
pation, but  found  them  not;  all  the  places  in 
the  sun  were  occupied. 

He  was  closely  in  touch  with  the  vast  busi- 
ness interests  of  Germany,  and  there  encoun- 
tered a  problem  which  may  yet  be  made  clear. 
Long-headed  men  in  Germany  have  been  saying 


226  The  Real  Kaiser 

for  some  time  past  that  the  country  was  rap- 
idly approaching  an  industrial  crisis,  and  that 
the  German  financial  system  was  so  inextrica- 
bly interlaced  that  all  commercial  Germany 
would  be  shattered  by  the  coming  storm.  It 
may  be  so ;  if  so,  the  Kaiser,  with  his  £20,000,- 
000  of  invested  capital,  must  have  been  aware 
of  it. 

In  the  markets  of  the  world  Germany  was 
no  longer  having  it  all  her  own  way.  German 
methods  had  come  to  be  recognised,  and  were 
being  opposed  on  the  same  plane  of  action. 
South  America,  formerly  the  best  of  Germany's 
foreign  customers,  was  passing  through  a  pe- 
riod of  depression.  Brazil's  staples  of  rubber 
and  coffee  had  fallen  almost  below  a  profit- 
yielding  price;  Argentina  had  experienced  bad 
seasons;  Chile's  mineral  resources  were  ap- 
proaching exhaustion.  As  the  Kaiser's  eco- 
nomic professors  told  him,  the  German  prob- 
lem was  becoming  acute. 

The  world  outside  was  distinctly  unsympa- 
thetic. Germany's  wild  campaign  of  ship- 
building had  involved  all  the  nations,  and  es- 
pecially Great  Britain,  in  heavy  expenses  they 
would  gladly  have  been  spared.  All  Europe 
was  panting  at  the  pace  the  Kaiser  was  set- 


The  Real  Kaiser  227 

ting,  but  grimly  determined  to  be  in  at  the 
finish.  England's  plain  intimation  that  she 
would  always  keep  her  lead  in  that  direction 
was  accepted  as  a  very  real  fact,  even  by  the 
dullest  German  of  Prussia.  But  it  was  ac- 
cepted with  a  resentment  that  can  only  now  be 
measured. 

German  resentment  at  Britain's  attempt  to 
limit  her  shipbuilding  activities  is  intelligible 
enough;  for  a  limit  could  only  have  been  set 
by  an  act  of  unjustifiable  aggression.  But 
German  resentment  at  Britain's  building  more 
warships  than  she  would  otherwise  have 
needed  was  only  one  ridiculous  symptom  of  the 
Anglophobia  which  possessed  her. 

Worse  still  for  Germany,  the  Kaiser's  frank 
expositions  of  German  aims  and  ambitions  had 
arrayed  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  against 
German  influence.  The  nature  of  the  bond  of 
the  Powers  was  beyond  the  means  of  German 
diplomacy  to  fathom;  it  resisted  all  the  efforts 
of  the  German  secret  service.  How  loose  and 
indeterminate  that  bond  really  was  has  re- 
cently been  revealed  by  Sir  Edward  Grey. 

Its  very  looseness  was  a  tribute  paid  by 
France  and  Eussia  to  the  National  honour  of 
Great  Britain. 


228  The  Beat  Kaiser 

All  these  circumstances  represented  the  com- 
plete failure  of  the  Kaiser's  scheme  for  making 
Germany  a  world-Power  without  recourse  to 
arms.  His  trade  scheme  was  collapsing,  his 
colonial  scheme  had  already  failed,  his  great 
show  of  force  had  only  provoked  a  greater 
show  of  armed  force. 

All  the  original  problems  remained  for  solu- 
tion, and  in  an  aggravated  state. 

Now,  through  all  this  time  the  clear  vision  of 
the  Kaiser  was  obscured  by  a  curious  mist. 
We  are  hearing  the  continual  argument  raised 
by  his  professors  that  the  sympathies  of  such 
countries  as  America  should  be  with  Germany 
in  this  great  war,  because  Germany  is  the  ''cul- 
ture nation."  To  Germans  that  seems  a  valid 
argument.  To  the  Kaiser  it  began  to  present 
itself  as  an  excuse  for  real  aggression.  His 
religious  belief,  his  profound  faith  in  the  ulti- 
mate destiny  of  the  German  race,  the  vanity 
which  made  him  sure  that  he  was  the  chosen  in- 
strument for  fulfilling  that  destiny,  all  pointed 
to  the  one  conclusion. 

Professors  by  the  score  were  maintaining  that 
all  the  worthy  people  in  the  world  were  only  Ger- 
mans of  some  kind  or  other,  and  Pan-Germanism 
was  a  faith  that  appealed  to  his  spacious  van- 


The  Real  Kaiser  229 

ity.  He  looked  back  on  the  beginning  of  the 
German  Empire,  and  found  that  by  force  of 
arms  only  could  Bavaria,  Baden  and  other 
states  be  forced  into  the  Union.  Sheer  wan- 
ton aggression  had  been  resorted  to,  and,  as 
they  now  saw,  for  their  own  good.  Such  an 
argument  could  only  convince  a  man  of  the 
most  colossal  vanity,  whom  circumstances  had 
made  anxious  to  accept  it. 

All  the  hideous  processes  by  which  this 
further  Germanisation  of  the  world  was  to  be 
accomplished  were  patent  to  the  Kaiser.  His 
fellow-fanatics  saw  only  the  logic  and  efficiency 
of  them,  but  his  view  was  a  wider  one.  He 
still  shrank,  when  they  were  ready  to  strike; 
it  needed  all  his  monstrous  conception  of  him- 
self as  a  benevolent  despot  to  bring  him  to  the 
striking  point.  It  further  needed  another 
stimulus,  the  threatened  substitution  of  his  son 
for  himself,  as  the  instrument  in  accomplishing 
Germany's  destiny. 

But  the  real  poverty  of  the  Kaiser's  soul 
came  out  in  the  final  test.  France  had  ac- 
cepted England's  friendship  with  a  blind  faith 
in  British  honour.  The  Kaiser's  men  mocked 
at  British  honour;  they  were  sure  there  was 
nothing  in  the  bond  to  force  England  to  budge ; 


230  The  Real  Kaiser 

it  was  against  lier  interest  to  budge;  therefore 
England  would  not  budge. 

There  had  been  a  time  when  the  Kaiser  knew 
better.  He  should  have  known  better  now.  If 
he  erred  in  his  estimate  of  the  position,  the 
scales  were  soon  torn  from  his  eyes.  He  rec- 
ognised quickly  enough  that  Germany  had  for- 
feited by  his  supreme  blunder  any  claim  to  the 
world's  sympathy  that  the  difficulties  and  mis- 
fortunes of  the  nation  might  have  earned. 
Most  Germans  will  not  recognise  it  even  on 
their  dying  day. 

His  failure  leaves  him  base,  coarse,  still  bom- 
bastic, and  almost  pitiful.  He  is  no  Napoleon, 
to  justify  his  insane  ambition  to  his  own  peo- 
ple by  glorious  deeds  of  arms.  It  will  only  be 
remembered  of  him  in  the  near  future  that  he 
made  the  name  of  German  hated  as  no  name  has 
ever  been  hated  before.  His  great  schemes 
have  already  fallen  in  ruins  about  him,  leaving 
him  a  tragic  figure  with  hardly  one  shred  of  his 
aforetime  dignity  and  nobility. 

In  no  other  guise,  it  would  seem,  the  real 
Kaiser  must  end  his  existence. 

THE   END 


I 


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